When Nick Dunlap tees off at 10:41 a.m. CST Thursday on the first hole at La Quinta Country Club in the opening round of The American Express, he’ll do so as the PGA Tour tournament’s defending champion.

One year ago, Dunlap stunned the golf world by winning The American Express as a 20-year-old sophomore member of the Alabama men’s golf team. He became the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991.

The victory gave Dunlap the option to accept immediate membership on the PGA Tour, and he took it. But sometimes, he wrote, after his life changed in “sudden, crazy ways,” he missed being one of the guys on the Crimson Tide golf team.

“I went from a college kid, playing on a team with his buddies,” Dunlap wrote for The Players’ Tribune this week, “to some dinners alone on tour, watching Netflix in the hotel, trying to find his way with the best players in the world. Going to the range at every event and seeing all the guys I used to look up to, it took me a while to feel like I fit in. Months, I’d say.”

READ NICK DUNLAP’S “I WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY ROOKIE YEAR”

Dunlap showed he did belong when he won again, capturing the Barracuda Championship on July 21 to become the first player in PGA Tour history to win as an amateur and a professional in the same season.

The former Spain Park High School standout qualified to play in the FedEx Cup. After finishing in a fifth-place tie at the St. Jude Championship, he advanced in the playoffs and wound up at No. 49 in the season standings, with the top 50 golfers qualifying for the PGA Tour’s Signature Events in 2025.

In December, Dunlap received the Arnold Palmer Award, presented annually to the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year.

But Dunlap wrote the choice that opened the way to that success wasn’t an easy one.

“It was a big decision for me because I’m from Birmingham,” Dunlap wrote. “I’d grown up always dreaming of going to Bama. We had season tickets and some of my favorite memories were going to Alabama football games. I have a really special relationship with (Alabama men’s golf) coach (Jay) Seawell. He was the first person to recruit me. Alabama was a lot more than just a school to me. It was a continuation of home. It was in my blood.

“When I was there I was actually fortunate enough to get to know coach (Nick) Saban a little bit. He’d come and watch me hit balls on the range and pick my brain, which is crazy to say. I learned so much from getting to spend time with him. He’s about as fierce a competitor as I’ve ever met. He’s all about getting better and improving every single day, no matter what. Obviously, you saw that in his teams, but to just hear him speak about his life, his passions and how he overcame challenges, it was really inspiring.

“I feel very lucky to have been at the University of Alabama.”

Dunlap started his second season this month by playing in the PGA Tour’s Hawaii tournaments. He finished 55th at The Sentry and tied for 10th at the Sony Open.

In speaking with the Golf Channel about his second season, Dunlap said returning to venues for the second time should help.

“I just think it’s a little bit less stressful that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” Dunlap said, “being like, ‘OK, I don’t have to see the entire golf course if maybe rest is a little bit more important,’ especially kind of coming off last week for me with a red-eye last night. And it’s like, ‘OK, I don’t have to get out to the golf course on Monday.’ I can kind of take that day off and maybe rest a little bit Tuesday morning and kind of get into a better routine of I can recover on my body instead of there being an urgency of me having to see the golf course, so I think that definitely will help me the next couple of weeks.”

Dunlap said he wants to see his game progress in 2025 with a top goal of making the U.S. team for the Ryder Cup.

“I always expect maybe too much of myself,” Dunlap said. “I’ve got a couple of things I need to get better at. And I think from an entire year last year, I got to really see where my game was at and kind of assess that when the year was over. I’ve got a plan on the few things I need to get better on. I’d like to enjoy myself a little bit more out here. I think I was a little hard on myself last year, so that’s definitely one of my goals as well. I’d like to see some progression in a few areas and contend in some of these bigger events and some majors and feel like once ’25 wraps up that I’m heading in the right direction for ’26.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.