Nick Dunlap improves score by 19 shots but misses cut at Masters
AUGUSTA, Ga. — One day after shooting a stunning 18-over 90 in the opening round of the Masters, Nick Dunlap improved his score by 19 shots on Friday, carding a 1-under round of 71 to miss the cut and finish 17-over.
“I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I’ve ever had starting a round of golf,” Dunlap said. “I had not a very good gut feeling about it stepping up today. Proud of myself to post something under par.”
Dunlap’s turnaround is tied for the largest round-to-round improvement in any major in the last 50 years, according to ESPN Research. (At the 2018 U.S. Open, Rickie Fowler shot an 84 in the third round and followed it with a 65 in the final round.)
Dunlap’s day was the second-largest round-to-round improvement in Masters history. In 1936, Craig Wood fired an 88 in the first round and then a 67 in the second round.
On Thursday, the 21-year-old Dunlap became the first Masters competitor in a decade and youngest in history to shoot 90 in a tournament round. He didn’t three-putt any greens, but he missed eight fairways on his way to one triple bogey, four double bogeys and seven bogeys. Dunlap did, however, return to the course on Friday.
“I think a lot of people would have maybe backed out, maybe not,” Dunlap said. “Certainly I wanted to at times. I know that … I’m never going to quit. I’m always going to show up.”
Dunlap won twice on the PGA Tour in his debut season last year, once as an amateur at the American Express, but he arrived in Augusta after missing three straight cuts, his game trending in the wrong direction.
Following his nightmarish first round, Dunlap went back to his Airbnb to hit more golf balls. His trainer, Alabama basketball trainer Clarke Holter, went to a nearby Target to get him 12 different kinds of golf balls to hit into the woods with his driver. It’s that club which appears to be the biggest problem for Dunlap; he only hit five fairways Friday.
“I tried my hardest to enjoy today for whatever it’s worth. It’s just very frustrating that my game is at this point, and it’s hard not to try to focus on that,” Dunlap said. “I’m a competitor, and I love this game. It doesn’t really love me back right now.”
Dunlap said his struggles have been creeping in since Hero World Challenge in December, but that it has gotten worse in recent weeks. He only has one top-10 finish this season at the Sony Open.
“I’m hitting hundreds of golf balls that not everybody can see. I’m doing it alone, and it’s not getting any better, so it’s pretty frustrating.” Dunlap said. “There’s a lot of anger … I think my 3-wood on 15 was the first free golf swing I’ve probably had in four weeks.”
On 15, Dunlap made birdie — his fourth of what was then a bogey-free round. But as Dunlap pointed out, his under-par round is not a sign that things are suddenly fixed. Yet even he could take solace in the fact that he didn’t just come back for more after Thursday, but was able to patchwork together an under-par round given what he had gone through the day prior.
“You try to have fun even though it can be quite frustrating at times, and especially right now it’s hard to find something fun about it,” Dunlap said. “But I got to come out and play Augusta today, so it could have been a lot worse.”
Source: espn.com