Nick Dunlap in the second round of masters.
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Augusta, Ga.-for the lunch crowd on the second floor porch of Augusta National Club Friday afternoon, course, tournament and game could look Genteel. Fifty meters away, in the first, golf player Nick dunlap He knew the truth. His stomach was woven, his mind was rubbed, his hands were wet by sweating. Deep inside the 21-year-old player, a war was going on, and he was losing it. But faced with a second round of war or flight, he was resolving the war.
“Man, lending – he appeared,” said a spectator in the first Tee. His friend made some math. If he shot a 62 course record, could he make the cut? No, not a chance. But Nick Dunlap appeared. Back in day, pre-tiger, if you were to play the first round always played second. But the second round WD has become commonplace over the past decades. On that basis, Nick Dunlap was getting credit just to be there.
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Dunlap’s Thursday’s score – 90, even 5s, 18 on par – showed the public what he is known for a while. Something is wrong. He is known for at least one month, if not much longer. But a result of 90 brings it to sharp relief. And now the man was calling it in tee with the oldest Augusta song: Forward please – now driving. Partners playing Dunlap, Billy Horschel and Robert Macintyre, Lefthededed Scottish, made their drivers driving. Dunlap hit 3-Dru, taking right concession stands and a television stand out of the game.
Salvo opening Dunlap on Thursday was a bullet directed to the left trees. nightmare He was continuing. He climbed the big hill to a 50 yard away from his game partners.
And then, something amazing happened. He made a great principle up and down in one and with the time he arrived at his 10th he was three under the day, on a wind with strong greens, of Korea. Some of the results tables listed the results for Macintyre and Horschel but left a blank next to the name of the Dunlap. Perhaps the operators of the results table thought they were doing a favor. They did it for Billy Casper and Charlie Cody when trying to break 90, but for a professional with a tour card, this may be the first. Dunlap was playing one of the best rounds of the day. They were not straight and green-not-not ways. But it was nine holes in 33 shots. After one first in 10, his car at 11 (with a driver) was close to the 14th Green, about 70 yards offline. But he managed to do before, too.
Just then, Rory Mcilroy was in the press building, telling reporters about his Second round 66After he opened with a painful, very casual 72, even with nothing about it. He described a moment in his Thursday’s round, where he (as European players said have said forever) lost the superiority after being put into the water from the 15th green. He described some of the second round self-talked about saying, “You idiot, what have you done?” No, this game is not soft. There is always a war that is happening, whether we see it or not, whether it appears on the outcome card or not.
Mcilroy was asked about Dunlap and the art of returning the surrounding things, shooting 90 on Thursday, going to three under Friday. He said, “He reminds me of a memorial story on the other side. I shot my first 63 round in Memorial in 2014 and supported it with a 79. And I entered to have lunch, and Pasha Jack Nicklaus there. “Golf, the championship golf;
“But we are all great players. We’re playing in masters. We are all capable of shooting good results.”
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Dunlap had a small gallery walking with him, including his mother and a friend. When he won the American Express tour in February 2024, as a 20-year-old mahogany in Alabama, his parents, girlfriend, agent, shaky coaches and college coaches were there. Many has changed since then. “He fights,” Dunlap’s mother said as she climbed to the Great Hill to 18 years old. “He didn’t leave.”
Three underneath turned to four under a bird in 15 but Dunlap was closed with three direct rods. When you are playing badly, when you are going through a round in smoke and mirrors, you can’t go home so fast. He signed for 71, an improvement with 19 strokes. Dunlap was not deceiving himself. If anything has to tell you that he has a chance to recover his old game, it’s her. To play this private war game at its highest levels, you have to be honest sincere with yourself.
Asked to compare how he felt about himself and his golf game, the first day against the second day, Dunlap said, “About the same.” It is a stunning acceptance, indeed.
One year and two months in his extremely successful and uneven professional career, Dunlap offered this experience:
“Extremely is extremely useful and extremely humble and frustrating at the same time. I think professional golf can be a very lonely place – especially when playing poorly.”
Thursday evening, Dunlap hit dozens of balls – bought on an urgent basis on an Augusta target, in every brand and color the store had – in the backyard of his house for rent. It was not practice. It was salvation. A golf player escaping his golf. Right now, Nick Dunlap is looking for new ammunition, a pace he can call his.
“Likes like I am trying to stain more than you can, and then put more weight on this,” he said. “I am trying to do something I don’t think it will work in the first place, so it is very difficult to grow there and see something good that is happening.”
You almost never listen to a golf player, deep in battle, talk so openly about the war.
As they came out of the 18th green, Horschel put his right hand on Dunlap’s back as they walked in the scorer’s room and told him he was proud of Dunlap to break down that second round. Dunlap looked tired and shocked with the shell as he made his way.
