Nick Dunlap turns professional: Golfer who misplaced out on $1.5M will not be capable of recoup cash
Nick Dunlap, the beginner golfer who gained a $1.5 million prize from the American Categorical match final weekend however couldn’t gather it as a result of he was nonetheless a university athlete, has determined to show skilled.
The announcement comes after days of hypothesis that Dunlap might go away the College of Alabama golf crew and play on the PGA Tour after his historic win.
Dunlap knew when he entered the golf match as an beginner that he wouldn’t be capable of earn any cash from it, as a result of that might violate NCAA guidelines.
So why did he play?
“There’s an enormous variety of people who find themselves going to be lining as much as signal him as a sponsor,” Victor Matheson, an economics professor on the School of the Holy Cross who makes a speciality of sports activities, instructed MarketWatch. “Nike and Titleist and all these of us are going to be all lining up.”
In response to Dunlap’s Instagram account, he already had sponsorships with Taylor Made and Adidas
ADS,
earlier than getting into the match.
From the archives: When LeBron James selected Nike in 2003, he gave up $28 million. It might find yourself making him $1 billion.
The NCAA started permitting faculty athletes to earn cash from their title, picture and likeness, or NIL, in 2021, when student-athletes gained a decades-long argument over the equity of receiving no remuneration even because the video games by which they performed generated thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the establishments they have been enrolled in. Since then, student-athletes have been ready gather sponsorship cash that leverages their NIL.
In fact, now that Dunlap is skilled he can signal any sponsorship alternative he desires and doesn’t must leverage his NIL.
The second profit Dunlap received from profitable this match is membership within the PGA.
Winners of tour occasions are assured invites to future golf tournaments for a sure variety of years, relying on when their win happens, a PGA spokesperson instructed MarketWatch. This implies Dunlap may have the flexibility to play in tournaments between now and 2026, and can accomplish that now that he’s a tour member.
“And not using a PGA Tour card, you’re not allowed to play in that match,” Matheson stated.
Regardless of leaving the Alabama golf crew and changing into an expert, he can’t retroactively obtain his $1.5 million payout. That cash has already been awarded to Christiaan Bezuidenhout, the skilled golfer who completed in second place within the American Categorical match.
See additionally: Who owns the Tiger Woods ‘TW’ emblem now that he’s left Nike?
Whereas it might really feel like an apparent transfer for Dunlap to show skilled, it probably wasn’t such a easy calculation.
Like many particular person professional sports activities, golf is pricey for athletes. Golfers, not like skilled golf, soccer or hockey gamers, should cowl the price of all their very own journey to competitions, in addition to paying their coaches and health coaches. An athlete who enters the skilled golf world and doesn’t do properly in tournaments doesn’t receives a commission and will even find yourself shedding cash.
“The idea is {that a} faculty scholarship is price extra to [an athlete] than the potential prize winnings that they’d earn, as a result of the overwhelming majority of faculty athletes who’re taking part in golf aren’t profitable $1.5 million,” Matheson stated earlier than Dunlap turned professional. “So retaining that faculty eligibility is price way more to the overwhelming majority of faculty golfers.”
Dunlap, who gained the U.S. Newbie Championship in 2023, turned the PGA Tour’s first beginner winner since Phil Mickelson gained the Tucson Open in 1991.
Dunlap didn’t reply to a request for remark.
See additionally: NFL star Brock Purdy made $870,000 this season — 16 faculty soccer gamers made extra from NIL