Nick Dunlap's Summer of Success is his Formal Introduction to the World of Golf
It was about the time Nick Dunlap was 10 years old when those around him noticed something different about the tall, lanky, athletic adolescent. He excelled at all sports but was most attracted to golf, and he didn’t bother with the everyday affairs of others his age. Not at the course.
It was too important, he was too driven, and it was so obvious to those who watched and had played the game. He’s going to be a star one day, they all said, seemingly in unison.
At Greystone Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama, Dunlap could be who he wanted from an early age, a budding hopeful of one of the most unfriendly games that exists, the game that best illustrates chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out despite beautiful backdrops and manicured greens as soft as … well, you know the saying.
He’d get to know all of them, the club pros, the PGA Tour pros, and everyone in between. That included everyone at the club who knew what he didn’t, that Nick Dunlap the golfer could one day cross county lines, state lines, and international borders thanks to a heck of a lot of talent and a heck of a lot of ambition.
“Nick wasn’t a normal ‘kid’ kid. I met him when he was 11 years old and there wasn’t a lot of pushing him after a certain age,” Greystone head golf pro Jon Gibbons said. “He’d be at the course working on his game whether you told him he needed to or not. And if you did tell Nick to do something, it only took once.”
And, if players who’d been on the pro tour offered guidance, it hardly took that. He sought their attention and, indirectly, received it thanks to having the makings of a bright, prosperous career as a youth. Dunlap naturally attracted those around him. The older members, the older players, they all wanted ‘in’ because, well, he was so evidently invested himself.
He’d pushed aside successes of football and baseball to pursue golf, his Baronin Maria von Trapp to the Freddie Kreuger of many others thanks to the nightmare-ish mental strain of the game.
“It’s no secret Nick is an extremely athletic kid. He was a pretty high-level baseball player, a pretty high-level football player, and he’s always been that type of athlete,” Greystone lead instructor Brian Speakman said. “He was a finalist for the NFL Punt, Pass & Kick competition and went to the NFC Championship one year.”
But none of that mattered, not after a while, not after a fascination was formed and fostered organically. Besides, the self-reliance and isolation of golf was part of its appeal. It was the challenge, the unique element missing from the rest of the sports.
“You can throw a no-hitter in baseball, you can shut a team out in football, you can do everything right in golf on 18 holes and still lose. It’s all up to you,” Dunlap said.
“That’s what drew me to it.”
“Even Tiger [Woods], who’s the best player ever, only won probably 20-percent of the time. You’re going to lose more than you win in golf, and it’s inevitable," he said.
Well-adjusted to the rigors even at an early age, Dunlap was one of the few young players who had, in equal parts, a mentor and an admirer who didn't take long to spot the tall, talented product of the Magic City.
Jeff Curl, a former pro on the PGA’s Korn Ferry Tour, became an added set of senses for the golfer. He’d be Dunlap’s caddy, Dunlap would be his caddy, and they’d develop the game’s imperative potion: a trusting Batman-to-Robin relationship, with the dynamic flip-flopping and the comforting conduit being a bag of sticks with shafts suitable for each player.
"You could just tell he had a ton of talent," Curl said.
“Over the years, we’ve had a lot of things in common, like hobbies. I’d be fishing, then he’d start to come fishing with me. We’d fish at the golf course, or go rent a boat or something, and go out on the lake and just fish," he continued.
He taught Dunlap how to be one of the guys, the older guys, and showed him the wizardry of being a professional. But what started as an on-course education seamlessly strayed off-course, and off-road as caddy-player trust was built day-by-day, in time, between Curl and Dunlap.
“When he was at the hunting club, he wasn’t Nick Dunlap the 14-year-old kid who was a really good golfer, he was the little pest who was 10 or 15 years younger than everyone there,” Curl joked.
Dunlap, naturally curious, still picked and pried and tried to peak into the mind of a pro golfer. At that point, he kind of knew what it took physically, but mental aspects of the game remained mysterious until he soon felt the heat and the combustion of top-flight competition at older levels.
“He’s always been an amazing learner. He’s always picking people’s brains, ‘Why are we doing this? Why are we hitting this shot like that?'" Curl said. "I’ll say this, he’s one of the smartest people I know. [He's] really, really, really good at, honestly, just the little stuff, like seeing mistakes made and being smart enough and mature enough, even at a young age, to navigate certain situations and say, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do this,’ or ‘Maybe that’s not a good idea.'"
With Curl at his right, or left, or rear, Dunlap has been able to learn things a lot of other players his age can't, and the nuances the pro-turned-caddy affords him have "accelerated" his development, according to Speakman.
“Jeff has given him a lot of exposure with older pros and all that, so he’s not been your typical kid from that perspective," Speakman said, adding that the objective of golf is to be in "full control," something he thinks Dunlap has ably shown through discipline on the course, thanks, in part, to Curl's presence.
Whether it was carrying the bag for the kid, the kid carrying the bag for the former pro, or interactions in-passing, Curl eventually came to the conclusion that Dunlap wasn't "wired" like he was. He acted differently, thought differently, and calculated the game of golf differently than not only his peers, but than an actual pro standing side-by-side bearing witness to the more-than-rapid development of a literal teenager.
Curl couldn't believe some of the things he'd do, and he soon knew only time could prevent Dunlap's invariable rise.
“Nick is 14 at the time. We’re down in Dothan, Alabama and he’s caddying for me. It’s 100-million-degrees out there and we’re exhausted afterwards. Couldn’t hardly move," Curl said.
"We get back to the hotel and he’s putting on gym shorts, and I say, ‘Nick, where the hell are you going?’
“'Don’t go to the gym,' I said.
"He says, ‘It’s only 1.8 miles. I’ll just run there.’
“I tell him, ‘Nick, you’ve just walked nine miles carrying my bag in 100-degree heat. I can't let you run to the gym.’
“So, he runs 1.8 miles to workout, works out, then runs 1.8 miles back, and I had that what’s-wrong-with-you-look on my face when he walked in the door.
"That's when I knew we’re not the same. It’s just a different way of being wired. But that’s why he can believe he’ll be the number one player in the world, and why he can believe no one will stop him,” Curl said.
Similar to the incredulous caddy, Gibbons, the club pro, knew early on what trajectory to project for Dunlap. “He’ll be in the PGA [Tour]. Sometimes you just know," he conceded.
“It’s really the work of all our guys that have put in the time with him, and now we’re all able to sit back and enjoy watching him grow up and mature as a golfer," Gibbons added.
He's won tournaments and trophies, and he's establishing himself as one of the top amateur golfers in the country. Well, by definition, Dunlap is the top junior amateur player in the country after winning the title less than two weeks ago.
It was the biggest trophy to win to this point for Dunlap, who, this summer won the Polo Golf Junior Classic in Jersey City, New Jersey, medaled at the U.S. Amateur qualifier in Decatur, Alabama, and was runner-up at the Junior PGA Championship at Kearney Hill in Lexington, Kentucky.
“Having conversed with him over the summer, Nick had set some really strong goals. He wanted to make the Junior Ryder Cup team, so he had some very aggressive, strong goals over the summer that he was determined to meet," Speakman said. "That kind of led to him getting going and getting on a really, really hot streak in June and July."
It's funny, as Dunlap's caddy explained, that unless you follow the sport on the junior level or live in Alabama, you might not have heard his name before this summer. Or before he won the amateur trophy. The difficulty, Curl said, is having to face the same "12 or so guys at the top of every leaderboard" every tournament, every weekend.
You likely end up knowing each other's tendencies intimately on the course, intentionally and unintentionally, and sometimes that means the difference in outcome can be tedious things like handling the emotions and distractions of high-stakes competitions.
How well does Dunlap control those factors? Well, if it's any indication, you could sense his confidence through an iPhone, and through the otherwise-stale words alone.
“Coming into the Junior Amateur, he told me that as long as he didn’t slip up during stroke play that he thought he could win it. And you could tell by how he sounded that he was extremely confident,” Speakman said of the longtime-Greystone member.
The Country Club of North Carolina, the site of the junior amateur championship, was set to be a test of stamina and endurance for the 17-year-old who had played, how should I say, plenty of golf this summer up until that weekend.
Dunlap admitted fatigue was a factor late, naturally, but his confidence had never been higher. He'd either won or lost close in every outing of June and July, and in his mind, it was "only a matter of time" before things came together and favorably fell his way.
"There were a couple stretches where I hit it wrong off the tee, or whatever, and because of that mindset I had I was able to recover and bounce back.”
Curl was there when the mood needed lightening, too, as he knew the right times to crack a joke and force a smile out of Dunlap. Ultimately, that's in the 'job description' of a caddy, the one person who, on the course, knows most what parts of the individual are influencing the player, the performer in that moment.
"Sometimes I’m almost too serious on the golf course, but having somebody like Jeff on the bag helped a ton," Dunlap said. "He was able to cheer me up. He made me laugh a couple times down the stretch when I think I really needed it."
For Curl, that's what's best about working with young golfers, especially after living through the near-horrors the sport not-so-covertly throws your way. It's what's most gratifying in a tournament win, the small moments like that that shape your memories of the times, the player, and the occasion the two of you are able to share.
It's supposed to be fun, of course, in spite of pressure-packed moments not easily forgotten if they don't go your way. Maybe, though, maybe the prior shortcomings serve as additional juice to the savory satisfaction of winning big. Likely.
“There’s a rare bond between the caddy and the player. I take nothing away from his parents, and I love them dearly, but it’s such a unique bond," Curl said. "It’s more than a coach-mentor. When we were winning last weekend, I bet I said it 20 times. I’d look at him and say, ‘I love you, man. Just enjoy this moment.’”
Can you imagine? Wow, what a moment and, deservedly, for the pair of Curl and Dunlap, an extended one.
“I would be lying if I said it wasn’t bigger than the rest of the tournaments I had played in this summer, but I tried to keep my mind in the same way I’ve been thinking," the 17-year-old said.
That he did, impressively. And in capturing the nation's top junior crown, the Alabama pledge joins the ranks of both past and current greats Tiger Woods, David Duval, and Jordan Spieth as winners of the exclusive championship.
The carrier of the bag and the supplier of confidence and wisdom, Curl, one of many involved in the run, believed that when it came down to it, he thought no one could beat them over 36 holes because "the best player usually wins," as was the case here, he said.
The duo kept saying, probably harmoniously, "another tee time, another tee time, another tee time," until there were no more tee times, finally.
They had done it, and now the title-winning team from Birmingham returned home to a much-desired break from things. Briefly, that is. The soon-to-be high school senior and his caddie agreed to rest for a few days and, in Dunlap's words, he "had had enough." The physical fatigue, the mental stress, the long car ride. All of which called for a trip to the lake. Curl was just as spent, in his own way.
“My wife asked, ‘How hard was it?’ and I said 'it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,'" the caddy said. "I’ve played my whole life and had control and could always sleep at night knowing it was all in my hands, but watching Nick and knowing how hard he’s worked, watching him try to make a five-footer can bring out a lot of emotions when it goes good and bad.”
He might've been more emotional than Dunlap. Might have. But, as he told his close pal, "Anytime you’re on a trophy with Tiger Woods, you’re pretty good.”
Truer words were never spoken. That's why, for Crimson Tide fans, the anticipation is building, assuredly, with what unfolded about 10 days ago. No need to worry, though, as both Curl and Dunlap reiterated, he'll be a mainstay of the program upon arrival.
He's 17. He wants to be a 17-year-old, and when he's 18, he'll want the same thing, to be able to enjoy the normal perks of being a kid entering college.
“He’s going to go for four years, he’s going to love it, he’s going to grow up as a man. He wants to be a kid and he wants to enjoy college," Curl said, "The PGA Tour is the greatest, loneliest place on the planet. It really is, and you have your whole life to play pro golf. You get to play amateur golf at an amazing place, an amazing university, and he’ll meet friends that will be his friends for the next 50 years.”
See, it's what they've been saying all along, these two see eye-to-eye, and it started about a decade ago.
When asked about his upcoming career at Alabama, arriving quicker now than ever with increasing fan interest, Dunlap said he's focused on now now and he'll worry about then then. He did, however, discuss how different the college game will be than what he's experienced up to this point, and it's an interesting perspective from a life-long golfer.
“Golf is a super-individual sport, and you play by yourself all the way up until college. Then you get to play four years of college before you’re all by yourself again," the Alabama commit said. "I never got to really win at the high school level as a team. So, especially at college, being part of a team and winning as a team is something that I would say you’re never going to forget about. I think it would be a milestone-type thing in my career.”
As for who will be his coach, the lead man of the Crimson Tide golf team, Jay Seawell has established himself as one of the best at the collegiate level. While at Alabama, he's led the program to two national championships (2013, 2014) and produced an impressive amount of professionals now on the PGA Tour, most notably Justin Thomas.
When he'll allow himself, when he has accumulated a few more trophies, Dunlap looks forward to joining the lineage.
“It’s a goal that I’ve always had, to celebrate as a team and win as a team, and to be able to win a ring in college would be pretty unbelievable.”
Those in and around the program will be waiting, and watching. And so will many more as time passes, as is the life of a rising golf star.
