Joel Dahmen was penalized 4 photographs for having 15 golf equipment within the bag Thursday.
PGA Tour
As Joel Dahmen walked to the 4th tee Thursday throughout the first spherical of the Shriners Kids’s Open, one thing didn’t look proper in his golf bag.
“We bought to 4 tee and I grabbed a water and I walked over to my bag and I noticed a 4-iron that was within the mistaken spot and our stuff is at all times in the suitable spot,” Dahmen stated after his spherical. “It wasn’t in the suitable spot.”
The rationale the 4-iron wasn’t in the suitable spot? It wasn’t imagined to be there in any respect.
Dahmen was penalized 4 photographs Thursday for having 15 golf equipment in his bag, another than the authorized restrict of 14 below the Guidelines of Golf. The four-shot penalty (utilized as two two-shot penalties over the primary two holes) turned his opening spherical 1-over 72 right into a five-over 76 which left him in 131st place within the 132-man area as first-round play was suspended because of darkness Thursday night (and delayed Friday morning because of excessive winds).
The veteran professional, who has developed a big following after being featured within the first two seasons of Netflix’s PGA Tour docuseries “Full Swing” and was open about his life and profession struggles on the present, was nonetheless after the spherical confused how the additional 4-iron bought ended up in his bag.
However nonetheless, he owned the error and didn’t put it off on anybody, together with his caddie Geno Bonnalie.
“By no means occurred to me earlier than,” he stated. “I journey with 15, 16 golf equipment. I feel most individuals out right here do relying on situations and programs. You understand, been touring out right here for a very long time and by no means occurred earlier than. I’d prefer to blame Geno. That might be the simple factor to do. It’s not his fault both. I performed Tuesday and Wednesday out right here. We didn’t see it in there.
“Why, I don’t know. I don’t know the way it bought there. It sucks.
“It’s a type of bizarre ones,” he added later. “I’ve a Clif Bar that’s most likely two months outdated in there. Like there may be most likely a banana that’s rotting in that golf bag. There may be all types of crap. It’s fairly straightforward to usually discover an additional membership, and sadly, we didn’t do it at present.”
The penalty couldn’t have come at a worse time for Dahmen both. After a profession 12 months in 2020 when he completed thirty eighth within the FedEx Cup after which earned his first PGA Tour victory in 2021, his Official World Golf Rating has steadily declined to 229th, his worst since 2017, his rookie 12 months on the PGA Tour.
Weird confusion over 15-club rule results in DQ of Tour professional
Coming into the week, he was 124th on the FedEx Cup Fall factors checklist which means he wants good finishes over the ultimate 5 occasions of the season to safe his place among the many high 125 and retain his full-time standing on the PGA Tour.
As of the suspension of play, Dahmen was projected to fall one other 4 spots to 128th.
When he realized the additional membership was in his bag, he stated he knew the rule however nonetheless known as over a guidelines official to “verify the whole lot.”
“It’s a type of bizarre ones that sticks with you,” he stated of the rule. “It occurs possibly every year. I keep in mind Ian Woosnam did it manner again when on the British Open when he was across the lead.
“I knew it was a max of 4, however I known as over a guidelines official simply to verify the whole lot, handed the membership off, and performed with 14 the remainder of the best way.”
In 2001, Ian Woosnam was tied for the lead going into the ultimate spherical of the Open Championship when he and his caddie found he had two drivers within the bag on the second tee, placing him over the 14-club restrict. A part of the problem was that Royal Lytham and St. Annes, that 12 months’s host, began with a par-3, which means Woosnam didn’t search for driver in his bag till the second gap.
PGA Tour winner accepts uncommon 4-shot penalty with remarkably good humor
There, he was assessed only a two-shot penalty since he found and eliminated the fifteenth membership earlier than enjoying the second gap. In Vegas, Dahmen was given a four-shot penalty, the utmost allowed for breaching Rule 4.1b. The rule states, “The participant will get the normal penalty (two penalty strokes) for every gap the place a breach occurred, with a most of 4 penalty strokes within the spherical (including two penalty strokes at every of the primary two holes the place a breach occurred).
In keeping with the rule, the breach is decided to have occurred when the participant grew to become conscious of the breach. Since Dahmen grew to become conscious of the breach on the 4th gap, he was given the utmost penalty.
In that second, Dahmen stated “there might need been a pair curse phrases,” however then he thought concerning the larger image.
“I had lots of people out supporting me at present, serving to our household basis,” he defined. It was a type of moments the place you want need to lose it and also you need to get mad, be mad at your self, be mad at Geno, be mad on the world.
“However you go searching and persons are donating a bunch of cash to our basis and life shouldn’t be that unhealthy. It’s a mistake. It’s going to occur. Sadly occurred at this second in time.
“However, yeah, simply stripped one down the center after that and had loads of birdie putts; we simply didn’t make them at present. Yeah, a type of the place you reside and study. Geno feels horrible. I really feel horrible. We’ll tee it up tomorrow morning and attempt to make a bunch of birdies.”
Dahmen can have his work reduce out for him in Spherical 2. As of the Spherical 1 suspension of play, the cutline was sitting for the Shriners at 2 below with DataGolf projections giving a greater than 60 % likelihood to maneuver to a few or 4 below after Spherical 2.
