Nick Dunlap defeated South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout to win The American Express championship on Sunday, making history as the first amateur winner of a Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA) Tour tournament since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
After missing the cut in his previous three PGA Tour events, Dunlap was playing in his fourth event in California when he holed a six-foot par putt in the last moments.
“Being an amateur and experiencing this is so cool,” the tearful American golfer remarked. “Whether I made or missed that, if you had told me come Wednesday night that I had a putt to win this tournament, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson wrote on X: “Nick Dunlap put up an incredible performance. Congratulations for such a fantastic victory.”
