“THE LEADING AMATEURS NOW ARE TEN YEARS AHEAD OF WHERE MY GENERATION WAS AT THE SAME AGE.”

EXCLUSIVE BY GEOFF OGILVY

Like most people I suspect, I was surprised when U.S Amateur champion Nick Dunlap won the American Express Championship on the PGA Tour. But I wasn’t as surprised as I might have been a few years ago. There is plenty of evidence that the leading amateurs – especially those on the U.S college circuit – are playing tour level golf before they turn professional. All of which is a bit different from the time when I made the switch from playing for fun to playing for money back in the late 1990s. Back then, it wasn’t quite unknown for a top amateur to win a pro event. Robert Allenby had come close to winning the Australian Open in 1991 and Aaron Baddeley went one better when he lifted the Stonehaven Cup in…

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Golf Australia (Digital) - 1 Issue, Mar 2024 - Issue 418

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