How a ‘Your Mom’ Joke Helped Nick Dunlap Seal a PGA Tour Victory

Imagine what was going through Nick Dunlap’s mind as he approached the 18^th green at the Pete Dye Stadium Course at The American Express last Sunday.

To that point, despite fending off challenges from major winner Justin Thomas and multi-time winner Sam Burns, the 20-year-old amateur needed that putt to avoid a playoff and become the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event in over 30 years.

Besides telling Dunlap to aim for the left-center of the cup, what other words of wisdom did caddie Hunter Hamrick impart on the youngster?

The final words before the moment of truth:

“Your Mom could make this putt.”

“Your mom could make this putt.”

Words of encouragement from Nick Dunlap’s caddie Hunter before his winning putt 😂 pic.twitter.com/hs89dSULqj

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 22, 2024

It was probably safe to say that Dunlap wouldn’t have felt any worse if he missed the putt, so the bit of brevity came at a perfect time before he went to work one final time Sunday.

Two other winners from Sunday:

1. 1. Golf Channel, which scored a large ratings increase over last year’s tournament that was won by Jon Rahm.
   2. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who hasn’t yet won on the PGA Tour but took home a winner’s paycheck last week. Due to Dunlap’s amateur status, the $1.5 million prize went to the highest-finisher who was eligible, which was the South African. The 500 FedEx Cup points assigned to the winner, however, were not claimed. Bezuidenhout took home the normal amount of points for a runner-up finish.

Nick Dunlap’s historic win at the AmEx on Sunday drew 534K viewers on Golf Channel, up 37% from Jon Rahm’s win last year (391K).

That’s the best for the event’s final round since 2019 (574K for Adam Long-Phil Mickelson) pic.twitter.com/OyiKScZX9H

— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) January 23, 2024

Cover Image via Sports Business Journal