By Micheal Chukwuebuka, Reporting
A 20-year-old amateur golfer, Nick Dunlap, became a PGA Tour champion on Sunday.
Dunlap won The American Express tour, beating out Christiaan Bezuidenhout by one stroke and finishing the 72-hole tournament at 29-under-par 259.
But the champion, per the rules of amateur status, won’t be able to collect any prize money despite becoming the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open.
A spokesperson for PGA Tour confirmed to our source, NBC News, that the $1,512,000 prize will be given to Bezuidenhout, the only runner-up in the tour, as if Dunlap had not been in the field.
In a picture making the rounds after the win, a tearful Dunlap was seen hugging his family and friends following his historic win.
“I went over a scenario for today probably a million times and it’s never going to go how you planned, and it didn’t.
“I’m so happy to be standing here.
“It is so cool to be out here and experience this as an amateur.
“If you would have told me that, you know, come Wednesday night i’d have the putts to win this golf tournament, I wouldn’t believe you,” Dunlap said following his win.
Stonix News reports that comparisons have been drawn between the 20-year-old champion and Tiger Woods.
In the history of the game, Dunlap is the second golfer to win both the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur titles after Tiger Woods.
He is also the first reigning U.S. Amateur champ to win on the PGA Tour since Woods in 1996.
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