MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 11, 2025

Nick Dunlap

Quick Quotes

Q. Nick, can you describe your emotions yesterday compared with your emotions right now after this round?

NICK DUNLAP: About the same. It's frustrating. There's a lot of anger, a lot of -- it's hard to put everything you have into something and feel like you're not getting any better.

But yeah, show up today, gave it all I got, and posted something under par.

Q. Can you take some positives out of this one today, so much lower than yesterday?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, I mean, there's always positives shooting under par, especially around here. But putted it nice. Hit some really good irons. I've just got to work some stuff out off the tee.

Q. What did Billy say to you at the end of the day?

NICK DUNLAP: More so just impressed that I showed up today, to be honest. I think a lot of people would have maybe backed out, maybe not. Certainly I wanted to at times. I know that.

There's a lot of things I could have done that would make me a lot more happy to come out and feel like I'm not playing well at all and come play golf in front of a bunch of people.

But yeah, I'm never going to quit. I'm always going to show up.

Q. What did you do last night, and then how did you prepare for the round mentally?

NICK DUNLAP: I hit a couple buckets of balls at my Airbnb into the woods. I don't know if there was any houses or anything back there. But you just hit a bunch of golf balls and -- I had more of a knot in my stomach today than I've ever had starting a round of golf.

Yeah, I definitely can learn something from that, but it's certainly not a position that you ever want to be in again.

Q. You were in the pine straw on 3 over to the right. You see a window. What did you pull and what did you see and did that steady you?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, a little bit. It was a good shot. I had a gap. It's kind of a hard green to hit whether you're in the fairway or the pine straw in general. I was just trying to get it there to the right somewhere and it actually hooked back on line. Yeah, hit three really nice iron shots in a row there on 3, 4 and 5.

As every golfer says that ever plays this game, I hit a good tee shot on 15 and felt like I found something. So we'll see what happens when I come out next time.

Q. What was the club from the pine straw at 3?

NICK DUNLAP: 8-iron.

Q. How long have you felt like this?

NICK DUNLAP: A couple weeks now. Like I said, I'm hitting hundreds of golf balls that not everybody can see. I'm doing it alone, and it's not getting any better, so it's pretty frustrating.

Q. When did you start the (indiscernible)?

NICK DUNLAP: No, I think it's just kind of gradually crept in since Hero probably. It's just kind of continually gotten worse. Like I said, I think my 3-wood on 15 was the first free golf swing I've probably had in four weeks.

Yeah, I'm just going to go and hit a bunch of golf balls and get ready for next week.

Q. A year and a couple months into your pro career, what do you think of this life so far?

NICK DUNLAP: It's extremely rewarding and extremely humbling and frustrating at the same time. I think professional golf is a very -- can be a very lonely place, especially when you're playing poorly. But it's been a lot of fun. You get to travel to a lot of historic and unbelievable places like this one.

You try to have fun even though it can be quite frustrating at times, and especially right now it's hard to find something fun about it. But I got to come out and play Augusta today, so it could have been a lot worse.

Q. Was there ever a moment last night that you were even considering withdrawing?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, but I would never let myself do that. Never going to quit. I've never withdrawn from anything. I've never teed it up and not finished. I take pride in that, and that's always how I'm going to be.

Q. Did you have any conversations or texts last night that resonated with you that helped you going into today?

NICK DUNLAP: No, not really. I just knew it was going to be hard. And I don't have very clear thoughts at all when I'm on the golf course right now, so knowing that it's probably going to be a struggle was -- like I said, I had not a very good gut feeling about it stepping up today. Proud of myself to post something under par.

Q. Your tee shot on what goes into the pine straw, I imagine you're thinking, this is déjà-vu a little bit. How were you able to regroup there?

NICK DUNLAP: Try not to let yesterday carry over into today. I think if I did, it would have been another high one.

It's like -- yesterday was like trying to hold on to a rope and you can't hole on to it. It's a really, really bad feeling. You just can't stop it. It's just whatever bad can happen does happen.

Yeah, just try to come out here with some kind of positive energy. I tried my hardest today with Hunter to talk through something after I hit every shot to keep my mind off of kind of what's going on, how I'm swinging it and wherever I hit that shot because a lot of them weren't great.

Then once I get up there, then I kind of lock back in and hit the best shot I can.

Q. Does this feel somewhat redemptive to just put a round together, breaking par, kind of gutting it out?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah. Like I said, I take pride in that. But the problem didn't just go away. I've got to hit a bunch of golf balls. I think I know finally now what direction to head into. Now I've just got to put in the time.

Q. How much of hitting balls into the woods last night was trying to find something with your swing and how much of it was just trying to get some anger and frustration out?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, I wouldn't really say anger. It's more disappointment than anger, to be honest. I was kind of past the anger point very, very early into that round.

Like I said, you put everything you've got into something, and to fail or not do what you want to do, however you want to put it, it's very, very frustrating.

Q. Where did you get the balls?

NICK DUNLAP: My trainer actually went to Target and got a bunch of -- I probably hit 12 different kinds of golf balls from colors to brands to you name it. Doing a little ball testing.

Q. What's your trainer's name?

NICK DUNLAP: Clarke Holter. He's the basketball trainer at Alabama.

Q. When you won the American Express you were saying you could take a little bit of extra time. You used the phrase, "I don't know if I'm ever going to be here again." Does it still feel like that? Is that sentiment still in your mind?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, like I said, I tried my hardest to enjoy today for whatever it's worth. It's just very frustrating that my game is at this point, and it's hard not to try to focus on that. I'm a competitor, and I love this game. It doesn't really love me back right now.

It's very hard for me not to focus on that at the moment just with the amount of time that I put in and effort.

But yeah, I look around a little bit on 12 and 13 and take in this place, it's definitely an honor to be here, and hopefully I can get back soon.

Q. Just so we can try to understand, what direction are you trying to go? What are you specifically trying to do?

NICK DUNLAP: I guess the best idea I can give you without something golf related is it's like trying to bench press more than what you can and then put more weight on that and try to do it. That's kind of where I'm at off the tee right now.

I'm trying to do something that I don't think is going to work in the first place, so it's very hard to step up there and see something good happening.

Like I said, really on 17 and 18, I just flipped my hands at it, but that was three golf swings where I actually got through them. I don't think I've felt that in probably four weeks.

Q. What did you hit into 4?

NICK DUNLAP: 4-iron.

Q. Did you carry your driver today?

NICK DUNLAP: I did, yeah. I hit it three or four times. Hit them I don't even know how far right. Yeah, I mean, like I said, I don't have much confidence in the moment, so it was more when I get out there, it's how can I get it in the hole in the least amount of strokes possible. It doesn't matter what I hit.

I've learned that. If I'm not comfortable, then hit 3-wood. I kind of did that all day.

Q. How happy were you with the birdie at 8 after your drive?

NICK DUNLAP: It's kind of funny, honestly. Same thing with the par on 9. It makes you laugh sometimes where I was getting up-and-down and making putts and -- like I said, there's no pictures on the scorecard. It's just a 4 with a circle around it and I'll go to the next hole and try to do the same thing.