Amateur star’s quest for PGA card a Dunne deal
The high school class of 2011 has another member this week at the Farmers Insurance Open, although Paul Dunne is different from the others.
For starters, he is from Ireland.
And it is not like he grew up playing junior golf against Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Emiliano Grillo, Daniel Berger or the others.
“I played the Junior Players Championship. That was the only AJGA event I played,” Dunne said on Tuesday.
“I played all my junior golf mostly in Ireland or around Europe with the Irish national team. I didn’t travel to America too much, so I didn’t really get exposed to those kind of people.”
Dunne rose to a measure of fame last summer at St. Andrews when he became the first amateur since Bobby Jones in 1927 to have at least a share of the 54- hole lead in the British Open. He closed with a 78 and wound up fourth among amateurs.
He stayed an amateur to play in the Walker Cup, and then earned his European Tour card at qualifying school. Because he has a low priority, and the European Tour events are strong in the Middle East, Dunne took a sponsor’s exemption and will make his PGA Tour debut at Torrey Pines.
Dunne went to Alabama-Birmingham, the alma mater of former US Open champion Graeme McDowell, so he knows players from his class.
Thomas stands out because he went to Alabama, and they played several events together. He just has not played in the same group as Thomas or Spieth.
Also in the field this week is Ryan Ruffels of Australia, the 17- year- old who recently turned pro.
“I think he’s more advanced than I was at 17,” said the 22- year- old Dunne.
“He’s obviously proven that he can play well and compete at high levels. So if he feels like he can come out and do well straight away, then I have absolutely no issue with his decision to turn pro.
“But for me, I always wanted to go to college. My parents always instilled kind of aca- demic excellence in the family, so they were always big on me getting a college degree and then make my own decisions after that.”
Back to work
Michelle Wie described her offseason as “doing nothing”. — except for swimming with sharks and getting tips on her short game from Tiger Woods.
Wie said her swim with the sharks was a bucket list item, though she was a little skeptical ( and terrified) to learn there was no cage involved. Once she got in the water, she described it as a “peaceful” swim.
As for the work with Woods, she said he had a clinic at the Medalist, and because Woods can still do little more than walk, he asked her to come along to hit the shots.
Both went to Stanford ( Wie graduated) and both are Nike clients, but Wie said she had not seen him for “like 14 years”.
What was the short- game tip?
“A secret,” she said. “But it was cool. We were just kind of talking about it and stuff. I mean, he has the best short game, besides Phil ( Mickelson). All the guys are good at short games. He has to be one of the best.”
Divots
Fabian Gomez ( Sony Open) and Jason Dufner ( CareerBuilder Challenge) were both outside the top 100 in the world when they won. The last time the PGA Tour had back- to- back winners outside the top 100 was last June when David Lingmerth won the Memorial and Gomez won the St. Jude Classic ... According to the PGA Tour, the CareerBuilder Challenge was the first time Phil Mickelson has played bogey- free on the weekend of a 72- hole event ... Chris Riley was among the four players who qualified on Monday for the Farmers Insurance Open ... Bubba Watson will be returning to China in April to play in the Shenzhen International. Watson and Li Haotong will be ambassadors for the tournament April 21- 24, two weeks after the Masters. Watson tied for 29th last year. Li lost in a playoff.
Phil ( Mickelson) quit playing here in Kapalua because he wanted to spend time with his family. Now a lot of people, to spend time with their family, they come here.” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, on the number of players who brought their family to Hawaii for the start of the new PGA Tour year
Stat of the week
Jordan Spieth is the only player from the top 20 in the world to have won on the PGA Tour since the season began in October.