MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2024

Nick Dunlap

Quick Quotes

Q. Start off, this has been a whirlwind of a spring for you; you're here now.

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah.

Q. What are the emotions of being at Augusta? Obviously you knew you were going to be here, winning the AMEX. To be here now, what is that like?

NICK DUNLAP: I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. You know, greatest place on earth, and honored to be here. You know, I got to come two months ago, but it's different seeing all the patrons, and the golf course is starting to really shape up.

It's really, really cool.

Q. Looked like on 12 you got a selfie out there.

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, I don't know if I was allowed to or not, but...

Q. Is that a spot you just kind of dreamed of being?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, that's what I told Hunter walking off that bridge. Life is too short for special things like that. May not get a chance to come back; maybe I'll play 20 more times. I have no idea.

Yeah, it's something that I'm sure it'll be a moment that either of us don't forget.

Q. How do you take in that first time?

NICK DUNLAP: I don't know. I just try to enjoy it, look around. I got here at 10:30 this morning and walked around until noon. Didn't d anything. Walked around the pro shop like three times.

Just try to take it in as best as I can.

Q. Did you sleep much last night?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, slept great. Got a nice house. We're staying 20 minutes away from here, my family and Hunter and a couple other people.

Q. Coach Seawell told me I believe the plan, I think, you and Lee are playing together tomorrow?

NICK DUNLAP: Wednesday.

Q. What is that I guess like for you to be with some of the other Alabama guys?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, it's really cool. We play a lot of golf back home, too, so it'll be a comfortable and really cool for both of us to kind of play at home and then be able to play here.

Yeah, I'm sure we'll both share that for a long time.

Q. (Indiscernible.)

NICK DUNLAP: Don't ask.

Q. You have absolutely no shot of winning the low am this year, which is probably not what you were expecting when you won the U.S. Amateur in August. In your recent professional career, how have you reestablished your goals this week at the Masters?

NICK DUNLAP: First off, good to see you. Been play I have a little while.

Q. Yes it has.

NICK DUNLAP: I think I'm learning week to week what it's like to try to compete out here and play my best. I don't necessarily think everybody says you don't have to do anything different.

I'm learning that the hard way in some of these events but also learning that 4-, 5-under is top 10 and even par is the cut, so it's the small mistakes that I'm trying to clean up, and the things that Coach Seawell tried to beat into our brains for a few years.

That's finally starting to click, what he was trying to teach us.

Q. What's the one thing that you're still trying to adjust off the golf course? Obviously there is the coursework, practice, travel. That's consistent with what you've done in college. What are maybe some of the other things this your positive life you're still trying to grasp?

NICK DUNLAP: Got to pay everybody now. Everybody was kind of helping me out before. Nothing is really free anymore.

But, no, just trying to surround myself with a team that I can trust and is always there for me and can handle everything else outside of golf and I can focus on playing my best.

Q. Mentioning a team. Your Alabama former teammates got a lot of attention with you winning on the PGA TOUR. Let's give them some attention. How much do you follow them?

NICK DUNLAP: Hole by hole. Yeah, those guys are extremely special to me and I've said it multiple times, they're more than just teammates. They really are. The support and love I've gotten from them has been awesome through this whole thing.

If roles were reversed it would've been tough to lose a teammate mid-season obviously going into arguably the important part of the year, but they have been awesome.

And, yeah, I wouldn't want to be playing alongside anybody else.

Q. I'm sure the trade-off of missing the amateur dinner tonight, I think you're winning in that category. There will be an empty chair there tonight. Is there any amateur you can think of or anyone, hey, take my spot tonight if you could put someone in your chair?

NICK DUNLAP: Would you want to do it?

Q. Yes, I would.

NICK DUNLAP: No. It's going to suck, but I think it will be really cool to stay in the Crow's Nest for a night or two and experience that. Fortunately and unfortunately I'm in a new position and grateful to be here, but, no, I wish they would let me pop in there for a second, but it is what it is.