Joel Dahmen needed a final-round 65 at The RSM Classic at worst to keep his job. He had yet to achieve that score in the FedExCup Fall, and although his scenario wasn’t 100% crystallized Saturday evening, he knew the situation demanded one of the rounds of his life.
Dahmen, 37, is confident in his abilities, but he knew the long odds of summoning greatness amidst the greatest pressure. Hence Saturday evening had the vibe of a “funeral.” He picked up his son from TOUR daycare after a frustrating third-round 70 at Sea Island Golf Club, and his mind wandered to what could be lost. He has developed close friendships in his eight years on TOUR – with the likes of Mark Hubbard and J.T. Poston, who followed Dahmen’s pursuit closely Sunday afternoon on the FedExCup Fall’s final day, which also marked the final day of the TOUR’s top-125 exempt era, a run that lasted 41 years.
Everything coalesced in Dahmen’s mind Saturday evening and into Sunday morning. Then Dahmen, wife Lona, son Riggs and caddie Geno Bonnalie had an impromptu dance party shortly before the final round, to the tune of something called the “Broccoli Dance.” Then Dahmen danced to perhaps the round of his life.
Dahmen holed out from 110 yards for eagle at his fourth hole Sunday, the par-4 13th at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course, and he never let up. Needing 65 or better, Dahmen carded a 6-under 64 that vaulted him 26 spots on the leaderboard, from T61 to T35. Crucially, he maintained his position at No. 124 on the FedExCup Fall standings, after he had projected No. 128 going into Sunday.
Dahmen did it. He kept his job.
A day after Dahmen and longtime caddie Bonnalie allowed thoughts of a return to the Korn Ferry Tour, on which Dahmen earned his first TOUR card in 2016, they summoned a performance that bordered on life’s rarest gift of complete satisfaction. It’s a feeling that’s hard to find, but it’s one to savor and bottle forever.
“That’s probably the most alive I’ve felt on the golf course,” Dahmen said Sunday. “Especially the last nine holes, for sure … because I care. I think I was portrayed maybe in a TV show where I didn’t care as much as people think, or I didn’t put in the time or the effort. But I have amazing people around me, my wife, my caddie Geno, my coaches, my friends; they’re just a special group of people who care about me. I really wanted to do it for them, and I wanted to keep this ride going.
“And I’m glad I get another year at it.”
Beginning next season, it will be harder than ever to maintain full status on the PGA TOUR. Changes announced last week include the reduction of fully exempt status from top-125 to top-100 on the final FedExCup Fall standings, in addition to the reduction of 10 cards via the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List (from 30 to 20). For conditional members, earning full status will be higher than ever. Graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour will yield the same difficulty.
Hence The RSM Classic’s inherent pressure reached new heights this week, with players around the bubble scratching and clawing for any marginal advantage to keep their job and avoid an uncertain fate in 2025 – which likely will include Korn Ferry Tour starts for players in the 126-150 conditional category.
Sweden’s Henrik Norlander made birdie on the 72nd hole for a T17 finish that allowed him to vault six spots on the FedExCup Fall, from No. 126 to No. 120, and regain exempt status after playing the 2024 season from the conditional category (he finished 2023 at No. 126 on the FedExCup Fall, on the bubble’s wrong side by a single position). Norlander, 37, is a veteran of 299 starts between the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour, and normally a T17 would mark a solid but nondescript week. Yet he described his approach and putt on Sunday’s final hole at Sea Island as two shots that he will “remember forever.” That’s the magnitude of the FedExCup Fall finale, sharpened through finality.
Daniel Berger shared second place at The RSM Classic, vaulting 27 spots from No. 127 to No. 100 on the FedExCup Fall and retaining exempt status for 2025. Berger and Norlander were the only two players to move inside the top 125 at the season finale, knocking out Zac Blair and Wesley Bryan, both of whom missed the cut at Sea Island – Blair fell from No. 123 to No. 126, with Bryan falling from No. 125 to No. 128.
Dahmen played The RSM Classic’s first two rounds alongside Blair and Bryan in a threesome that doubled as a bubble bonanza (Nos. 123-125 entering the week). Late into Friday’s second round, he was on the verge of joining them on the cut line’s wrong side. But the Washington native dug deep with birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 Friday at the Seaside Course, and he drained a 6-footer for par at the closing hole to finish squarely on the cut line at 1-under. It meant he had a chance on the weekend, even after a double bogey on his 16th hole Saturday (Seaside’s par-5 seventh) meant his back was firmly against the wall into the final day of the TOUR’s 41-year, top-125 exempt era.
Dahmen and his wife Lona had a heart-to-heart conversation Saturday evening, in which Dahmen apologized for putting her through this much stress. Lona wasn’t having it.
“She reminded me last night, like, ‘This is what I signed up for,’” Dahmen said Sunday. “I’m like, ‘No, you signed up for like a really crappy mini-tour player at the time who was broke. You did not sign up for this.’
“Yeah, she’s like, ‘We’re going to be OK. We have a great family; we love each other’ … I thought of the tears of sadness and how it can kind of change our life going forward and I’ve thought about it, the other side. So I’m very happy it was tears of joy.”
“Seeing it all pay off, you just feel it a little more,” Lona added. “We’ve had Netflix and all these other things, and they weigh on you in different ways, and it’s different adjustments throughout life. And we’ve had family illnesses and all that stuff, so to have a moment when you feel like … he’s worked really hard … a moment of joy, it means a lot.
“I was telling Joel’s coach earlier, I was like, ‘Well, nothing like the game of golf to just make you feel alive at all moments, whether it’s good or bad.’”
It’s all too real, and sometimes it’s just wonderful.
Source: pgatour.com
