Justin Thomas undoubtedly believed that he would lead going into the final round at The American Express after shooting 61 in the third round at the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA WEST. The 15-time PGA TOUR champion thought it would be the lowest round of the day, at the very least.
Nope. Not this week. That’s how things are at The American Express, where after Thomas’s round things got historic with the rise of the sure-handed U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap, who fired 11-under 60 to tie the record for the lowest round ever by an amateur in a PGA TOUR event. His playing companions for the final round, Sam Burns and Thomas are 4 and 3 strokes behind him, respectively.
“I never imagined that I would have to deal with a college student shooting sixty shots today,” Thomas remarked.
Not a single one did. However, The American Express went bonkers on Saturday. A day of lipped-out holes-in-one, extraordinarily low scores and the development of a superstar who hasn’t yet gone pro. It served as the warm-up act for the last round, which has every element of a thrilling conclusion.
Dunlap is the primary character. After Phil Mickelson’s victory at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open, the 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Alabama has the potential to become the first amateur to win a PGA TOUR tournament. In the previous 90 years, he would also be the second-youngest winner of the Tour. In a TOUR event, he is the first amateur to do it since Paul Dunne in the 2015 Open Championship. He currently shares the 54-hole lead.
“It will not be easy. Of course, it will be unlike anything I have ever experienced on the PGA TOUR. We just kind of go out there and do us and be in the moment. We have a strong game plan for that golf course.” Dunlap stated on Sunday about the challenge at hand.
Recent years have seen some near-close calls. At the 2022 Travellers Championship, Michael Thorbjornsen competed and placed solo fourth. During the first three rounds of the Masters last spring, Sam Bennett was competitive. Dunlap, though, is not like that. These predecessors lacked Dunlap’s amateur pedigree and were neither in the lead.
During his stellar junior career, he shot 59 at Birmingham, Alabama’s Highland Golf Club when he was twelve years old. Right now, he is the third-ranked amateur in the world, only behind Christo Lamprecht and Gordon Sargent. Dunlap defeated Sargent in route to winning the U.S. Amateur last summer at Cherry Hills Country Club in a dominant fashion. With the victory, he became the only golfer to have won the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Amateur titles, together with Tiger Woods.
A round of sixty, which tied Patrick Cantlay’s sixty at the 2011 Travellers Championship for the lowest round by an amateur, was not included in any of the prior near misses. On the tenth hole of La Quinta Country Club, his first of the day, Dunlap made four birdies in a row after making a par. At No. 17, he added another, turning in a 6-under-30 round. To reach 60, he added four more birdies and an eagle on his back nine.
This week has also seen a drop for his closest competitors. Thomas, a fellow product of the Crimson Tide, shot 61 on Saturday, making up six birdies in a row on the back nine to secure a spot in the final group. Had he not lip-outed a potential hole-in-one on the par-3 13th, he would have tied Dunlap’s 60-hole score.
I thought, “This is going to go in,” as soon as it touched the ground and began to go towards the hole. That was really brutal.
However, Thomas couldn’t be all that angry. Sunday represents his best opportunity to win in more than a year, and it would be a victorious beginning to what he believes would be a season of comebacks. Thomas is not participating in any of the 2024 Signature Events and did not make it into the FedExCup Playoffs for the first time last year.
In the majors, his well-documented difficulties came to a head. After missing the cut in the Masters after shooting 78 in the second round, he went on to shoot over 80 at the U.S. Open and The Open Championship. With three top-five finishes in his last three stroke-play competitions, his play has recently changed. The comeback could reach its climax on Sunday.
Then there’s Sam Burns, an LSU alumnus who, this week, has earned the title of honorary Alabama fan according to his most recent hairstyle. After shooting 61 on Friday, Burns led through 36 holes. He is 24-under overall after following it up on Saturday with a 65. Burns would have at least one PGA TOUR victory in four consecutive seasons if he wins at The American Express this week. Last year, he achieved career-high earnings of $7.14 million and a ninth-place FedEx Cup finish. In his four prior starts at The American Express, he had three top-20 finishes.
Burns and Thomas will be pursuing a more youthful iteration of themselves. Both were highly anticipated prospects when they joined the PGA TOUR. They will now make every effort to impede the rise of another.
Regarding Dunlap, Thomas predicted that “he’s going to feel things he hasn’t felt tomorrow.”
It is hoped that the golf world will see things that have not been seen before. The American Express went bonkers on Saturday. Let’s see what happens on Sunday.
