Joel Dahmen has handled the pressure of closing out a PGA Tour victory, but even that didn’t equate to the emotional weight he felt standing over a 5 1/2-foot putt in Georgia on Friday.
Miss it, and Dahmen was assured of missing out on fully exempt status on the PGA Tour for 2025. Make it, and he would get to live to fight another weekend.
The 37-year-old steadied his hands to drain the putt and make the cut on the number at 1-under par at The RSM Classic on Sea Island, Ga. Dahmen enters the weekend projected to finish 126th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings — only the top 125 earn fully exempt status for next year.
“It was a great putt. I was very nervous,” he admitted after the round. “But there’s still work to do. It wasn’t the game-winner, it was like the half-court shot to get us like at halftime. But without that and the way I played today, I wouldn’t have anything this weekend.
“I’m hoping I play great this weekend and I hit 36 greens and I just kind of plod my way around and it’s super easy, but that’s not the way golf is. Really proud of myself today, but there’s still work to do.”
Nothing has come easy this season for the winner of the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Ranked as high as 58th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Dahmen has plummeted as low as 240th this year while posting a lone Top 10 finish against 10 missed cuts in 28 events.
This week marks No. 29, including all eight during the FedEx Fall swing as Dahmen has attempted to improve his FedEx Cup ranking. He finished T14 in Mexico two weeks ago, but hasn’t managed better than a T40 in the other six. That included a missed cut in Bermuda last week, which ratcheted the pressure up that much more.
“You can’t get away from anything. The room’s a little more quiet around you. Like a pitcher throwing a no-hitter this week, it’s a little different,” Dahmen said. “Once I missed the cut in Bermuda last week, stress has been high.
“You lay in bed, try to go to sleep, but it’s like you’re sleeping on the lead of a major every night. That’s kind of what it feels like, but a little more stressful than that.”
Dahmen’s chances of securing exempt status appeared bleak after opening with a 73 on Thursday. He fell to 2 over with an opening bogey on No. 1, then managed three birdies over his next 15 holes to set up the all-important putt on 18.
When the putt dropped, Dahmen hugged his wife, Lona, and playing partner Mark Hubbard said the all the drama during a Friday round in November caused him to “stress drink.”
“I’m sorry for them, I’m sorry that they’re feeling the way I’m feeling,” Dahmen said. “I know my wife has been stressed. I have a lot of great people around me and so it’s hard on them, but it’s just because they love me and they care about me.
“I mean, job’s not done. … We have two more steps to go.”
If Dahmen doesn’t improve his standing at least one spot by the end of the weekend, he will still retain conditional status in the Nos. 126-150 category. Either way, Dahmen — who gained “every man” fame along with caddie Gino Bonnali in the Netflix documentary “Full Swing” — said his professional golf story is far from done.
“I still got more to write this weekend, for sure, but without having the opportunity to play this weekend, my story would be a lot shorter this year,” he said. “What happens this weekend, my story’s still not done. I have a lot left in me and I’m going to give my all.
“But this weekend’s big, for sure.”
