FROM CAMPUS TO CLUBHOUSE

Today's rising young golf professionals are making a beeline to the top of the game.

- JIM MCCABE

Rarely is golf talked about as a fast-paced game, except for the intensified speed to which today's elite players are now swinging their clubs.

The truth is, the game has always been methodical. Where patience is encouraged. For decades, the recipe for success was this: Take your time, endure a few tough years, train relentlessly and learn from seasoned veterans, train even more, and maybe by your late twenties or early thirties you'd be ready for prime time.

But the days of making young golfers bide their time are long gone. Want to prove yourself, young man? If you have the game, the PGA TOUR is not opposed to your wishes to step into the big time and can accommodate lofty ambitions accompanied by large doses of firepower and self-belief.

It's a sound philosophy for the TOUR to embrace, because if there's one thing we've learned in recent years it's that guys coming out of college now aren't afraid.

Such were the thoughts of Canadian Adam Hadwin, a two-time winner on the PGA TOUR. He spoke in the moments after witnessing something the PGA TOUR hadn't seen since 1991 an amateur winning a tournament, The American Express back in February of 2024.

With his cap enthusiastically tipped to the University of Alabama's Nick Dunlap, Hadwin explained, "This is my 10th year and I feel like it took a few years to kind of get comfortable out here." But after watching Dunlap post 64-65-60-70 to reach 29-under and win by one, the veteran could only shake his head in admiration.

"Now, with the PGA TOUR U and guys playing events before getting a TOUR card, they're comfortable and there's no adjustment needed. They come out firing. They hit it so far now, too. But obviously, an incredible talent and, yeah, very impressive."