GREENSBORO, N.C. — If you asked Luke Clanton to describe his ideal warm-up for the U.S. Amateur, it’s a fair bet he wouldn’t have said “playing 39 holes in North Carolina with the heat index above 90 less than 24 hours before teeing off in Minnesota.” But for the 20-year-old, a rising junior at Florida State and still an amateur, that’s the price you pay for posting another superb PGA Tour result to put an exclamation point on a scintillating summer. With a third-round 62 and a closing 69, both completed on Sunday, Clanton posted a solo 5th place finish at the Wyndham Championship, which would have been good for a $323,900 payday…if not for that pesky amateur status.

But Clanton will have no time to celebrate—after his post-round media stops, he was set to fly on a private plane to Minnesota to play the U.S. Amateur, which he called the biggest event of his entire summer. So could he keep his energy up?

“When you put it that way, it’s going to be pretty brutal, no doubt,” he said. “but again, I signed up to do this. It’s cool to be busy.”

Clanton has been busy all summer. In late May, he finished tied for second at the NCAA individual championship, then won both his quarterfinal and semifinal team match to help send FSU to the championship against Auburn. There, he lost a heartbreaking decisive match to Auburn’s JM Butler as the Seminoles went down 3-2 in the final. After that, Clanton finished t-41 at the U.S. Open, registered his first ever PGA Tour top-10 finish at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, then did even better with a t-2 result at the John Deere Classic. Another made cut at the ISCO Classic and his first missed cut at the 3M led him to Greensboro, where he capped off a brilliant summer on the professional circuit.

Incredibly, Sunday morning started with a scare—Clanton was still in danger of missing the cut in his final three holes of the second round.

“Those three holes are probably the most nerve wracking holes I played in the morning at 6:50 in the morning,” he said. “Made it by one on the cut and went out the next 18 and played really well. I put myself in contention again. Again, just being out here in contention and being able to say that I was kind of close to the lead coming down the stretch is awesome. It’s a lot of learning for me and again, as a 20-year-old, it’s pretty sweet.”

For a moment, it looked like he might be in contention to win, but a bogey-bogey finish dropped him to 14 under. And though Clanton is no stranger to playing 36 holes in a day, this one felt different.

“The crowds and all that, it’s exhausting. I’m exhausted, 39 holes of golf is no joke,” he said. “Just the body, the body’s getting exhausted. I could feel it. I should have stayed in it a little bit longer, kind of let myself get out of the zone and a couple bogeys coming down the stretch.”

Nevertheless, it’s a dream summer for Clanton, and when it was over, he didn’t try to play it cool.

“I would definitely not say I would have done this, no doubt,” he admitted. “To be in contention for basically three events on the PGA Tour was awesome, no doubt about it. I would definitely tell you seven months ago I would say no way.”

This has been the year of the amateur on the PGA Tour, with Nick Dunlap’s historic victory at the American Express and players like Clanton and Neil Shipley showing their quality both on the PGA Tour and the majors. Now, Clanton will head back to his domain, and tee it up against his fellow amateurs to try to turn an excellent few months into something unforgettable. When asked where the U.S. Amateur ranked at the start of this stretch, he didn’t hesitate.

Number one,” he said. “It’s still number one. The U.S. Am’s the biggest amateur event in the world. These pro events are no joke for sure, but as an amateur you want to win the U.S. Am.”

He’ll be battling an incredible amount of fatigue when he tees it up at Hazeltine tomorrow, but after a summer of dreams, you wouldn’t want to bet against him.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com