Joel Dahmen knows all too well the pain of being close to losing his PGA Tour card. But he also knows how to handle the stress and maintain his full status, even when it happens at the last second.
Dahmen, one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour, is currently completely out of the FedEx Cup playoffs. He’d likely need a win at the Wyndham Championship to open a spot for himself in the top 70, and he seems determined to get it.
The 37-year-old fired a 9-under 61 during the first round of the Wyndham Championship to take the clubhouse lead with the round yet to finish. It’s the best round of the season for Dahmen, whose previously low was 62 at the Corales Puntacana Championship.
“It was really good,” Dahmen said, according to the transcripts of his post-round interview. “Drove it in the rough a couple holes early but got away with a couple of them and then hit a ton of fairways after that and hit the numbers I was trying to and rolled in a few putts. So it was as basic as it gets, but typically when you do all those things, it adds up to a really low score.”
A win would give Dahmen his PGA Tour card for the next two seasons, while qualifying for the playoffs would guarantee his membership for the following year. In either case, he would be exempt from having to play in the fall for the first time since 2022.
“Great to make the playoffs, that would be unbelievable, give me a lot of time off this fall,” he said, according to the transcripts. “We’ve got a baby coming so that would take some pressure off of that. The playoffs are a bonus for me. I’m just going to go out and try to play good golf, and I guess if I play really well, then I get to play another week.”
A year ago, Dahmen had to play until the final tournament of the FedEx Cup Fall to keep his PGA Tour card. Even so, he managed to it almost at the limit of his capabilities, finishing second to last in the top 125.
Dahmen has never qualified for the Tour Championship, the final stage of the playoffs. In 2019 and 2020, he reached the second stage (BMW Championship), while he has played in the first tournament several times, most recently in 2022.
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