CNN
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Life comes at you fast when you’re a prodigiously talented young golfer, so fast in fact that an awful lot of money might just slip through your fingers.

At the start of last year, Nick Dunlap was studying finance at the University of Alabama and he set himself up for a payday that no student could ever imagine: $1,512,000. Dunlap earned the money, but unfortunately, he never got to cash the check.

“It stings a little bit,” Dunlap explained to CNN Sports, reflecting on his incredible performance at the PGA Tour’s American Express tournament in California, where he’d been invited to play on a sponsor’s exemption.

Few could have imagined what would happen next, as Dunlap became the tour’s second youngest champion in 90 years and its first amateur champion since Phil Mickelson in 1991. It was a remarkable achievement, but it came with an extraordinary catch: as an amateur player, Dunlap had to forfeit the cash prize.

“At the time, I don’t think I really knew what $1.5 million was,” he smiled. “It wasn’t as hard as it is now. But ultimately, I got what I wanted in the end: a trophy.”

Dunlap’s rapid success shouldn’t have been a complete surprise to anybody who’d been tracing his trajectory in the amateur game. Just months earlier, he’d joined Tiger Woods as the only other man to win both the US Junior Amateur and the US Amateur titles.

A few months later, Dunlap achieved something that even Woods never did, he won again on the PGA Tour, but this time it was for money; nobody had ever won as both an amateur and a professional in the same season.

While golf is a genteel sport, Dunlap describes himself almost like an adrenaline junkie. “I just love competing,” he explained. “I miss it when I’m at home. I miss being in the hunt and having that feeling of being nervous. My parents are both highly competitive as well, so I think I have them to blame for that!”

Dunlap never graduated from Alabama: he quickly packed up his schoolbooks and joined the PGA Tour in the days after his California win. Initially, he struggled on the course, recording just one top-10 finish in six months and missing the cut in the three majors that he played.

But at the end of his first season as a professional on the course, he’d put a tidy $3 million in the bank. If he struggled to adjust to his new life in any way, he thinks, it was off the course.

“It was just learning how to be a man, a grown-up,” he reflected to CNN. “In college, everything is laid out for you.

“Obviously, the step I took was very large and I skipped multiple levels, and I knew there were going to be some speed bumps along the way. I got a place in South Florida, figuring out all that stuff, figuring out taxes and accountants and how to open bank accounts, that was the biggest change for me.”

Some of the more established players on the tour have teased Dunlap about his youthfulness and, in some ways, he’s in no hurry to grow up. “I’m my own worst critic, being out here is very stressful,” he mused. “I still try to be (a kid).”

Despite now being ranked as one of the top 50 golfers on the planet, he says it helps if he doesn’t always take the game so seriously: “I played with a buddy of mine at a Pop Stroke Putt Putt championship. I still try to have fun with it too.”

There is no question that Nick Dunlap is highly motivated, but he says that he tends to keep his goals and his dreams to himself. It’s no surprise, however, that he’d want to succeed in the major tournaments, where he’s still looking to make his first weekend appearance in five attempts and his Masters debut last year was as memorable as it was forgettable!

“It’s the only place I’ve ever been nervous playing a practice round,” he recalled, “there’s just a different feeling about it. Ever since I picked up a golf club, you look forward to that.”

Playing alongside then defending champion Jon Rahm and the former US open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Dunlap drove his opening tee shot way to the left of the fairway and into a crowd of patrons.

“I expected myself to be pretty nervous,” he chuckled. “It didn’t help that I hooked it off the first tee and literally cracked some dude’s head open. Like, he’s bleeding everywhere. I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s a good start,’” he added wryly. The next day, Dunlap was cut from the tournament too.

After such an inauspicious start at Augusta, things will surely only improve for Nick Dunlap and he knows that, whatever happens on tour, he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“This is what I always wanted to do,” he said. “To play golf and get paid for it, even better. Traveling the world, seeing some of the greatest golf courses in the history of the game and playing against the best players in the world. I think it’s definitely a dream!”

CNN
 — 

The UConn Huskies pulled away in the second half and didn’t look back, defeating the defending champions South Carolina 82-59 for a dominant victory in the women’s NCAA tournament national championship game.

With the victory, the Huskies secured a record 12th national title and improved to 12-1 all-time in NCAA tournament finals.

In a rematch of the 2022 national championship game between two of women’s college basketball’s premier programs, both teams got off to frenetic starts on offense, with South Carolina making five of their first seven field goal attempts.

The Gamecocks were in front early, but a flurry of UConn points in the paint from freshman forward Sarah Strong and senior guard Azzi Fudd sparked a 7-0 run for the Huskies to capture the early lead.

Fudd continued to torch the Gamecocks finishing with 13 points at the break, as the Huskies walked off the court with a 10-point advantage. South Carolina struggled to match UConn’s offensive firepower, shooting a season-worst 31.3% from the field in the first half.

UConn came out of halftime stringing together a 6-2 run and doubled their lead by the third quarter’s end, in part due to Fudd’s 11 points. The Huskies cruised in the fourth quarter, stretching their lead to as much as 32 points with the crowd at Amalie Arena standing as UConn inched closer to victory.

A teary-eyed Paige Bueckers, likely to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, walked off the court with 1:32 left. After being subbed off she approached head coach Geno Auriemma, with both exchanging a long hug near the scorer’s table.

“He told me he love me and I told him I hated him,” Bueckers said about the moment. “I love that man more than words can describe.”

The national title is the 12th for Hall of Famer Auriemma, with the NCAA’s women’s basketball all-time winningest coach closing his 40th season with the program by becoming the oldest head coach to win a championship.

“You just never know if you’ll ever be back in the situation again,” an emotional Auriemma told the ESPN broadcast after the game. “There were so many times when I think we all questioned like have we been here too long? Has it been time? And yet we kept hanging in there and hanging in there and it’s because the players make me want to hang in there every day.

“This team has changed so much from the beginning of the season. If people only knew we had a preseason scrimmage, we lost the scrimmage. I thought we wouldn’t make the NCAA tournament,” he added.

“This is I mean, they all been gratifying. Don’t get me wrong. But this one here, because of the way it came about and what’s been involved – it’s been a long time since I’ve been that emotional when a player has walked off the court.”

The dynamic backcourt duo of Bueckers and Fudd, along with Strong, combined to score 65 of the team’s 82 points.

The duo finish off the season delivering the Huskies a national title for the first time since 2016, after overcoming career-threatening ACL injuries during their collegiate careers.

“Much respect to UConn. They did a masterful job in executing on both sides of the basketball,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said after the game.

The Gamecocks, who were attempting to capture a third national championship in four years, were left disappointed of what could have been, while reflecting on a season of adversity for the Gamecocks.

“It did start getting away, but we just told each other to just keep fighting,” Bree Hall said after the game on if she felt the game got away from the Gamecocks. “We weren’t going to go down without a fight and I feel like we just got to keep fighting. It was tough but yeah.

Hall added: “We’re going to keep fighting, this is not the end for this team at all, for this program. They will be back here next year, or whenever it is, I believe in them.”

None of South Carolina’s starters tallied double-digit scoring figures in the loss. Joyce Edwards and Tessa Johnson scored 10 points each.

CNN
 — 

It’s a comeback that had looked so unlikely, even Alysa Liu’s coaches tried to talk the American teenager out of returning.

The 19-year-old is surely glad she didn’t listen though after becoming the first US woman in 19 years to win a world figure skating title, dethroning three-time defending champion Kaori Sakamoto from Japan in the process. It’s an accomplishment Alysa herself describes as “insane.”

“I haven’t even been training for a whole year yet. I never would have expected to do this good. I’m really proud of myself and my team. It was just such a great experience that whole week. It was my first worlds since I retired. It was my last competition, actually. So, coming back, it was really emotional and bittersweet, but I skated two great programs and I just happened to walk away with the gold,” Liu told CNN Sports.

“So, coming back and medaling again was really crazy. It’s such a wild story,” she added.

A story that’s even more remarkable because, in 2019, Liu was a history-making child prodigy who at just 13 years of age became the youngest US champion ever. She would then compete at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Liu – the oldest of 5 children – even medaled at that year’s World Championships before shocking the skating world by announcing she was retiring from competition at just 16.

“Back then, honestly, I really was just a kid wanting to be with my siblings and make memories with them. I hadn’t gone on vacation ever in my life until after I quit skating. So, it’s just human moments that I really craved. I just felt very isolated back then, traveling everywhere for training purposes. And I mean, I knew it had to be done because the Olympics was right around the corner, but it was really hard for me back then,” said the California native.

“When everyone wants you to win gold and all you want to do is be with your friends and family, it’s really hard because you’re doing something not for yourself. And I never really liked training. I didn’t like doing anything hard. I wasn’t living at home at all, and all the traveling, it got me really sick. I just really wanted to be at home and just enjoy hobbies and find myself. I feel like everyone was telling me who I was, and I never had that moment of clarity to realize anything about myself.”

Liu at one point admits she grew to even hate certain aspects of the sport.

“Yeah, I really did. I went through such highs and such lows. I felt like it was so extreme, and I wanted a break and at that time, I thought it was going to be a permanent break from the sport, but life goes on and I went through the extreme of being in the sport and the extreme of being completely out of it, and now I think I have a really healthy medium,” she said.

In fact, the recently crowned world champion – who’s now a psychology major at UCLA – is in an altogether much better place and totally reinvigorated. Something for which she credits an impromptu skiing trip to Lake Tahoe with friends during her time away from skating – a trip that would change everything.

“I hadn’t skated at all, and I would never step in the ice rink. I would avoid it at all costs. I wouldn’t talk about it. I wouldn’t watch skating. I completely disconnected myself from that world. And when I skied, you know, it’s cold, you have a lot of adrenaline,” Liu recalls.

“It takes a good amount of physical strength to get down those hills. It’s so similar to skating, and that was the first time I had felt that since competition and since quitting. And I really enjoyed it. So, I thought, why not step back out on the ice, since it’s easier to access than the mountains,” she added.

Liu’s momentous victory in Boston follows a devastating last few months for the tight-knit figure skating community. Earlier this year, a plane crash claimed the lives of 67 people, including 11 young skaters, four coaches and 13 family members who’d attended the US Figure Skating Championships in Kansas. Liu poignantly chose to dedicate her historic win to not just her team but also everyone on that plane.

“Everyone just inspires me so much and especially because the worlds were in Boston, I really felt like I was skating with everybody,” she said. “It was really powerful, and I think this is what skating’s all about. When I watch back some of the skaters, their skating is really good, and I even took something. I learned from watching them and the support and just their skating in general, it really makes our community. They had so many friends and skating, they inspired so many people, they had fun with so many people

She added, “I just like to think they’re with all of us every step of the way and in everyone’s skating journey. It’s about never forgetting them and remembering who they were as people and skaters.”

For Liu now, future hopes are firmly focused on next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

“I’m really excited. I hope I’m there. My first Olympics was really fun, and I thought, why not do another Olympics? And I’m pretty confident in my team moving forward. I think I’m going to be a whole lot better next season. I’m really excited for my own growth,” the teenager said. “I’m just trying to visualize two awesome programs I can put out. Something I can be proud of that I would love to showcase at the Olympics one day because it’s the biggest stage. It’s the biggest honor.”

With a newfound joy and passion, Liu is once again preparing to scale new heights. Quite appropriate considering that in 2023 she joined a group that embarked upon a grueling journey of over 30 miles to Mount Everest base camp, more than 17,000 feet above sea level.

Liu may have climbed to the top of the world in her sport but as far as one day summitting Everest is concerned, she says that’s simply not an option.

“The hardest part of the trek, like up the actual peak is the beginning with all the glaciers. Although I’m good with ice, I don’t know if I’m good with that type of ice. I’m going to avoid that,” she said. “I think I’ll just stick with hiking!”