Nick Dunlap cards lowest round in more than two years, contending at Bank of Utah Championship

There was a time when golf felt easy to Nick Dunlap. It looked a lot like Thursday.

The two-time Tour winner hit every fairway, rolled in more than 100 feet of putts and navigated Black Desert Resort without a bogey. When he took off his hat and shook his playing partners’ hands after 18 holes, he was 8 under, one shot back of the lead held by Zach Bauchou at the Bank of Utah Championship.

Dunlap put together dozens of rounds like that as one of the best juniors in the country and again during a standout freshman year at the University of Alabama. He became the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour in decades when he claimed The American Express in 2024. He validated it months later with a second win. Dunlap was touted as the next big thing. There was no reason to believe otherwise.

Yet just over two years later, Dunlap’s first round at the Bank of Utah felt like an aberration. He shot 8-under 63, his lowest round since the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open.

Golf hasn’t been easy for Dunlap in a very long time.

“I think I'm finally on the right track with some stuff,” Dunlap said. “Now that I feel that way, now I can put the work in and know I'm heading in the right direction versus just kind of spinning my tail a little bit.”

Dunlap began the week ranked last on Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, 157th out of 157. It’s the second year in a row that he’s sat dead last in the statistic. He has lost more than one shot per round, on average, with his driving. In any category, that’s difficult to overcome. When it’s happening off the tee, it’s a non-starter, unable to ever establish clear footing during a round. The misses haven’t been small. Dunlap hasn’t put a label on his struggles, but when it looks like it has, a certain word typically follows.

That debilitating struggle has kept Dunlap largely uncompetitive, floating around the periphery of the PGA Tour, buoyed only by the exemptions he earned with those wins in 2024. Dunlap’s status guarantees him membership through next year. That’s it. He finished 135th in the FedExCup last year. He sits 167th in this season’s standings, having made the cut in only eight of 19 events. His only top-30 finishes this season came in two Additional Events and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event.

Dunlap opened with a pair of pars before rattling off three straight birdies at Black Desert, each conversion coming from a shorter distance than the last. He rolled in an 18-footer at the 12th, a 6-footer at the 13th and a 5-footer at the 14th. Dunlap nabbed a tap-in birdie at the par-5 18th to make the turn in 4-under 31, then nabbed birdies at Nos. 1, 3 and 5. The highlight was the 39-foot putt her rolled in to make a two on the par-3 third. He ended his round with his eighth and final birdie at the ninth, his last hole of the day.

It’s just the second time Dunlap has hit every fairway in a Tour round. He completed the feat in the first round of the 2025 Worldwide Technology Championship.

“I had my fade back finally,” he said.

Thursday didn’t prove anything. Dunlap hasn’t solved his woes. That will take more than a round to prove. But it reminded everyone of his talent, especially when he can play from the fairway.