Of all the professional athletes who have been categorized as journeymen, few if any fit that description more aptly than Scott Dunlap.
The long-time Duluth resident has played golf all over the world in his pro career that dates back to the mid-1980s, winning events in Canada, South Africa and South America.
From 1996 to the present, Dunlap has been a member of either the PGA or Web.com Tour, enjoying two successful seasons among his seven on the PGA Tour, and collecting a pair of Web.com victories, the last coming in 2008 in Panama.
Dunlap turned 50 last summer and narrowly survived qualifying for the Champions Tour, advancing in a playoff for one of the final two available spots.
After back-to-back top-10 finishes in the U.S. Senior Open and British Senior Open, Dunlap was in position to make a run at a top-30 finish on the money list this season.
Dunlap is accustomed to battling to retain his status on whatever tour he was playing, but for a change, that is something he won’t have to worry about for at least a year.
For just the second time in his career, Dunlap scored a victory in a PGA Tour-affiliated tournament in the U.S., capturing the recent Boeing Classic on the Champions Tour in suburban Seattle in a playoff.
Dunlap’s win boosted him to 13th on the money list and 17th in the Charles Schwab Cup points standings, assuring him a spot in the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup.
“I was very much looking forward to the day,” Dunlap said after his victory. “I’ve been playing reasonably well the last couple months and was hoping today might be the day we break through, but you never know.”
Dunlap has been grinding away a long time, spending his early years as a tour player in Canada, South Africa and South America, He won multiple times in each of those locales, but only once in the U.S,, a Web.com event in California in 2004.
“It means that the wait was worth it,” he said. “It’s not like I ever thought about doing anything else. I mean, I’m a golfer.
“And thank goodness for the Web.com Tour and all its iterations over the years. It’s a great place to play and keep playing while, you know. I had hoped to get back on the PGA Tour and I managed it once in 2012, but obviously this tour is always looming, waiting there for you when you turn 50 and if you’ve still got a semblance of game.”
Dunlap, a native of Pittsburgh who played his college golf at Florida, was an original member of what was then known as the Ben Hogan (now Web.com) Tour in 1990, and made it to the PGA Tour for the first time through Q-school in ’95.
During his globetrotting ’95 season, Dunlap won both the South American Masters and Canadian Masters, with the latter victory getting him into the Canadian Open, a PGA Tour event. He finished 8th in the Canadian Open, went on to earn his PGA Tour card and kept it thanks to a 3rd place finish in the ’96 Canadian Open.
After losing his PGA Tour status following the ’97 season, Dunlap got it back in Q-school after a solid showing on the Nike (formerly Hogan) Tour in ’98 and remained in golf’s major leagues for the next four years.
Dunlap enjoyed his best year as a pro in 2000, placing 3rd in the Players Championship and contending for 54 holes in the PGA Championship at Valhalla before finishing in a tie for 9th.
Two years later, however, Dunlap had lost his PGA Tour status and did not get it back for a decade. He played a final season on the PGA Tour in 2012, turning 49 during the year. He was back on the Web.com in 2013 for the 11th straight year and made a handful of starts on that tour early this season before turning his full attention to the Champions Tour and its roster of players “that I didn’t beat once in all those, how many starts was it, 200 some?”
The actual number was 204. He’s played another 283 tournaments during 14 seasons on the Web,com Tour, winning twice but never finishing high enough on the money list to return to the PGA Tour without a visit to Q-school.
Dunlap made what will probably be his final Web.com start earlier this year in Valdosta, with his success on the Champions Tour making a return to competing against younger, stronger players for significantly smaller purses highly unlikely.
After tying for 15th in his only Champions Tour start of 2013, Dunlap recorded three top 10s and six other top 20 finishes this season before his win in Seattle.
An opening round 69 in the Boeing Classic left Dunlap five shots off the lead, but he surged ahead after a 9-under 63 in the second round, which included a hole-out for eagle on the par-4 fourth hole.
Dunlap’s second shot from about 150 yards out was well left of the hole, but a friendly hill redirected his ball back toward the cup.
“Good bumper pool on that one,” Dunlap observed. He added seven more birdies on his round, holing five putts in the 12-to-15-foot range and adding two birdies on par 5s.
Dunlap held a slim one-shot lead going to the final round, and was asked how confident he was in an unfamiliar position.
“So many things go into winning,” he responded. “Is it your turn? You’ve got one good break; does that one putt go in instead of lip out? Is it just your week?”
Dunlap birdied the par-5 opening hole after hitting his second shot within 10 feet of the hole, but struggled midway through the front nine, making two bogeys in a three-hole stretch around a par save that included a tee shot that almost went out of bounds.
In both the U.S. and British Senior Opens, Dunlap played his way out of contention in the final round, and seemed headed in that direction in Seattle before he rolled in a 35-foot eagle putt on the par-5 eighth.
Three birdies on the first five holes on the back nine, all after superb approach shots, put Dunlap in control of the tournament. But Mark Brooks birdied five straight holes beginning at the 12th and tied Dunlap with a birdie at the 18th.
Dunlap parred his final four holes, missing a birdie try on the 18th after hitting his second shot on the par 5 into a greenside bunker.
“I was in control and playing good, quality golf,” Dunlap said. “I felt like I did what I needed to do other than birdie the last hole.”
Dunlap’s view of the playoff was that “I’ve already won. If I lose this thing, a nice check and we finish second. We played good golf, so I was nice and free.”
After Brooks was forced to lay up on the par 5 after hitting his drive in a fairway bunker, Dunlap ripped a 3-wood to the back fringe and listened to the cheers as his ball slowly worked its way down a slope toward the hole, winding up about six feet from the cup.
He nudged his quick downhill putt within a foot of the hole and tapped in for birdie and his first Champions Tour win.
Dunlap has long held the reputation as a quality ball striker but a suspect putter, and his tee to green stats in the Boeing Classic matched his standard efforts. He ranks 23rd in driving accuracy on the Champions Tour and was 25th in Seattle. He ranks 5th in greens in regulation at 75 percent, and was 5th in the tournament at 76 percent.
The big difference for Dunlap was his putting. He is 51 and 63 in the two main putting stats, but was 9th on the greens in Seattle to key his victory.
Dunlap nearly made it two wins in three starts a few weeks later in Quebec, shooting a final round 64 after beginning the day four shots off the lead. He led for much of the final round and closed with an eagle, but Wes Short went birdie-birdie-eagle over his last four holes to edge Dunlap by one shot.