Nick Dunlap scored 18 over on the opening day of the Masters, a card more than twice as bad as any other player to take to the Augusta course. On his second outing at the Major, having made his debut last year, the young American came away with four double bogeys and a triple to compound his misery.
He officially carded a 90, which remarkably is still not the worst round in Masters history. That honour belongs to Charles Kunkle, who posted 95 in 1956. Dunlap started his day with a bogey, then made the first of just six pars all day. Two bogeys followed before a triple bogey on the fifth hole.
The 21-year-old out of the University of Alabama then went three holes without a bogey, his biggest stretch of the day, before falling foul on the ninth. A par on 10 was followed by back-to-back double-bogeys.
Two more bogeys on 13 and 14 saw the 2024 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year rack up shots, before his final par on the 15th. He ended the day with double bogey, bogey and then a final double bogey on the 18th to finish 18 over.
The United States amateur champion is the first player aged under 50 to shoot 90 or worse at the Masters since 1956.
Dunlap, a two-time PGA Tour winner, remarkably didn’t have a three-putt, averaged 1.83 putts per hole and shot 90 in Georgia.
The disappointment might not compare to how Dunlap felt just over a year ago, having won The American Express which came with a £1.1million prize.
However, as an amateur player studying finance in the United States, he was ineligible to cash that cheque and walked away without a penny.
“It stings a little bit,” Dunlap told CNN a year later, having been invited to play on a sponsor’s exemption. “At the time, I don’t think I really knew what $1.5 million was. It wasn’t as hard as it is now. But ultimately, I got what I wanted in the end: a trophy.”
Dunlap was able to soften that financial heartbreak, banking £2.3m on his first year as a professional, and he entered the Masters as one of the top 50 golfers on the planet.
But carding 90 will likely stick in the memory of the 21-year-old, who knows as well as anyone now just how unforgiving the Augusta course can be.
