Bag-carried additional club results in four-stroke penalization for Joel Dahmen, potentially jeopardizing his PGA Tour standing.
oh boy, this guy's in a pickle. Dahmen's currently placed at position 124 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, and with the top 125 maintaining their tour status for 2025 at the end of the autumn tournament series, he's pretty much skating on thin ice.
He nailed pars on the initial two holes, but on the fourth tee, he realized he had an extra 4-iron, pushing his total clubs above the max permitted 14.
"I've got no idea how it got there. It's a bummer. It's a real bummer in my situation too," he confessed to the press post-game.
Dahmen fessed up, and the ensuing sanction – two strokes for each violation, maxing out at four strokes per round – saw his initial pars get boosted to double bogeys, placing him at the bottom. He finished with a 5-over 76.
"I could easily pin it on Geno (Bonnalie), but that's not exactly his fault either. I played here on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we never noticed it," he explained.
"This is one of those moments where you wanna blow your top and curse the world out. You wanna blame yourself, Geno, even the universe itself," he went on.
"I've got a stale Clif Bar stashed away that's probably two months old. There's likely a rotten banana in the golf bag too. There's plenty of rubbish in there."
Dahmen, now 15 shots behind the Canadian leader, Taylor Pendrith, who's in the clubhouse, has got his work cut out for him if he's to crack the top 65 and secure his weekend spot.
Eight players will round off their opening rounds on Friday, with the second round commencing at 9:55 a.m. EST, following yesterday's suspension.
There are yet four fall events left after the Shriners Children’s Open, and Dahmen's got to put his game face on if he's determined to claim his card for 2025.
Despite the setback, Dahmen remains hopeful about his chances in the remaining golf tournaments. With his love for the sport, he vows to improve his game and maintain his tour status for 2025.
In light of his extra club incident, Dahmen has learned an important lesson about the rules of golf, making him more diligent in checking his equipment before each game.
