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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PONTE VERDA BEACH, Fla. – Nick Dunlap capped off a whirlwind year with one of the PGA Tour’s top awards.

Dunlap won the 2024 Arnold Palmer Award as the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year after the Tour announced his win on Thursday, Dec. 19.

At 20 years old, the North Shelby native, former Spain Park golfer and current Greystone Golf and Country Club member is the second-youngest player to win the award behind only Jordan Speith in 2013.

“Nick carved out his place in the PGA Tour record book,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement. “To begin 2024 as a collegiate golfer and end it with two PGA Tour victories and among the top-50 players in the FedExCup is truly impressive.”

Dunlap won the award based off a Tour member vote and won 57 percent of the vote to beat out Max Greyserman, Jake Knapp and Matthieu Pavon.

Dunlap was the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson in 1991 after he earned a tournament-record 29-under-par to win The American Express by one stroke on Jan. 21.

He defeated some of the top golfers in the world like Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Zach Johnson and Will Zalatoris to take the victory.

He surged to first place in the tournament with a 12-under-par 60 in the third round on Saturday, Jan. 20 at La Quinta Country Club, which gave him a three-stroke lead going into the final round at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.

Dunlap then joined the PGA Tour on Thursday, Jan. 25 and made his professional debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Feb. 1.

He picked up his second win of the season at the Barracuda Championship on July 21, prevailing in the Modified Stableford tournament to become the first player to win as an amateur and professional in the same year. Dunlap is also the first rookie since Xander Schauffele in 2017 to win twice in his rookie season.

Dunlap took part in the Masters, Players Championship, PGA Championship and U.S. Open and finished in the top 12 three other times in the regular season at the Houston Open, Memorial and Rocket Mortgage Classic.

He also finished the season strong, qualifying for the FedExCup playoffs and advancing to the second weekend of the playoffs at the BMW Championship by finishing in a tie for fifth at the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Aug. 18. Dunlap ended the year in 49th in the FedExCup standings.

Dunlap was considered the top amateur golfer in the world after winning the 2023 U.S. Amateur and becoming just the second golfer after Tiger Woods to win both the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur. He played college golf for the University of Alabama prior to joining the Tour.