Scott Dunlap is remembering there are some great perks to winning again, something he last had done 10 years ago. Dunlap, 60, captured the Insperity Invitational, which was shortened by rain. Winning is winning, and he knows as well as anyone that it is not easy to do.
Dunlap has won all over the world. He played on the PGA Tour for years, but never won. So in essence, every time he teed it up he was doing so to keep his job, needing to earn a card one year in order to play the next.
His victory at Insperity will keep Dunlap exempt on PGA Tour Champions through the end of next year, which takes him until he will be 62. That is a great relief to the lifetime journeyman.
“For me, it’s a new lease on life,” he said on the practice tee at Harbor Shores. “I never ever won on Tour, so I never have ever had the luxury of ‘another’ year. I would be the end of this year, and top 125 (to keep a PGA Tour card), or top 36 (Champions Tour), and then you got the next year. I never got the end of the ‘next’ year to play towards.”
Dunlap lives in Sarasota, Florida, and was scheduled to compete in U.S. Senior Open qualifying on Monday in Ocala, Florida, on his way to Michigan for the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. The U.S. Senior Open will be played at Newport Country Club; Dunlap has heard great things, but never played it.
His victory in Houston, however, exempted him into the U.S. Senior Open. No qualifier necessary.
“I drove by the exit (in Ocala) doing 85 mph on Sunday night,” Dunlap said, laughng. “I’m in, and the next two, then two years in Hawaii (at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai ... I mean, it’s crazy.”
