'I'm never going to quit': Nick Dunlap fights back after disastrous 90 at Masters Tournament

AUGUSTA, Ga. – The exit strategy was obvious and nobody would’ve blamed him if he took it.

Nick Dunlap, the 21-year-old two-time TOUR winner, had just signed for 90 in the first round of the Masters Tournament and the thought of handing in his card, throwing his clubs in the car and driving down to Hilton Head, South Carolina, or Jupiter, Florida, or as far away as he could get from Augusta National Golf Club crossed his mind.

That’s not Dunlap’s speed. “I would never let myself do that,” he said.

Instead, his trainer fetched him dozens of refurbished balls from a nearby Target, and Dunlap spent Thursday night pounding them into the woods behind his Airbnb.

“I don't know if there was any houses or anything back there,” Dunlap sheepishly admitted Friday. Given Dunlap’s mental state, the thought probably never crossed his mind. He was past feeling angry, that dissipated early in Thursday’s round, the worst at the Masters since Ben Crenshaw shot 91 in 2015. Instead, it was disappointment, a fair share of bewilderment and likely, some stubbornness.

Dunlap has excelled at every level of golf. He shot 59 as a 12-year-old, won the U.S. Junior at 17 and claimed the U.S. Amateur after his freshman season at Alabama. Then Dunlap became the first to win those titles and a PGA TOUR event before turning pro, winning The American Express last January. So everything about this stretch of golf – a 90 at Augusta and 80s in back-to-back weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship – has felt foreign. For all of Dunlap’s life, golf has made sense. His feats as a junior were only paralleled by the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Dunlap understood the questions and answered them better than anyone else.

Right now, he has no answers. He’s missed his last four cuts by considerable margins.

“It's hard to put everything you have into something and feel like you're not getting any better,” Dunlap said Friday after finishing in last.

The issue is clear. The fix is not. Dunlap’s driver has completely abandoned him. While he ranks above average in Strokes Gained: Approach, Around the Green and Putting this season, Dunlap ranks dead last on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee.

Simply, he’s lost all confidence in the club. Every hole starts with the same question: hit and hope with a driver, or take a 3-wood, lose valuable distance off the tee and play from a disadvantage?

On Friday, he opted for the latter. Apart from three or four occasions, he kept the headcover on the driver and bunted his way around Augusta National. Largely, it worked. He shot 1-under 71. But it’s no way to play consistently.

“The problem didn’t just go away,” Dunlap said.

Dunlap was not a good driver of the ball last year, but he was far from this. He believes the bad tendencies have slowly crept into his swing since the Hero World Challenge. The club head has gotten too inside on the takeaway, and at the top of the backswing the clubface has been too open and his hands have been too low. Over the last month, he’s tried to solve it with swing coach Josh Gregory. Nothing has yielded consistent results.

“I don't have very clear thoughts at all when I'm on the golf course right now,” Dunlap said. “... “Yesterday was like trying to hold on to a rope, and you can't hold on to it. It's a really, really bad feeling. You just can't stop it. It's just whatever bad can happen does happen.

“I'm a competitor, and I love this game. It doesn't really love me back right now.”

Dunlap made seven bogeys, four doubles, one triple, six pars and zero birdies on Thursday. It was the worst round of his pro career. It’s the type of round that makes you question how they got here and whether there’s any way back. Dunlap has thought about both.

But he took pride in dusting himself off, returning to Augusta National, and posting a score on Friday. Billy Horschel texted him Thursday night, commending him for his fight and sending words of encouragement for their tee time the next day. Scottie Scheffler sent him a text, too. Will Zalatoris gave him a hug when they got to the golf course.

Dunlap hit fewer fairways Friday than he did Thursday, but managed his way around the course and took advantage of the few opportunities he did have. He birdied Nos. 3, 4 and 8 to make the turn in 33, 10 shots better than the previous day. He was 4-under and bogey-free after another birdie 15, but he dropped shots on each of the final three holes to finish 1-under. Still, it was 19 shots better than the previous day.

As they walked off the 18th, Horschel put his arm around Dunlap and gave him more words of encouragement.

“I told him, ‘I’ve got a lot of respect for the way you handled it and you’ve earned a lot of respect from players and from the millions watching,” Horschel told to PGATOUR.COM. “I truly believe in karma, and he could’ve withdrawn, but he didn’t. I believe Karma is a b**** and I don’t know if he will go on to win next week, but the good karma will come around.”

As Dunlap spoke to the media Friday night, there was one swing he was holding on to as the possible turning point: a 3-wood he hit on the 15th that was “the first free golf swing I've probably had in four weeks.” Maybe the start of the good karma coming Dunlap’s way?

He was able to repeat the feel on 17 and 18 and felt good about the swings, even if it led to bogeys. Dunlap said it will take hundreds of shots at the range to test and drill into his swing. But it’s progress. He hasn’t seen that in weeks.

“I think I know finally now what direction to head into,” Dunlap said. “Now I've just got to put in the time.”

Will it work? Dunlap won’t stop until it does.