LAS VEGAS (AP) — Joel Dahmen was penalized four shots Thursday when he discovered an extra 4-iron in his golf bag at the Shriners Children’s Open, a big blow for a player who is on the bubble trying to keep his PGA Tour card.
Dahmen came into the tournament at No. 124 in the FedEx Cup. The top 125 at the end of the season keep full status for 2025.
He isn’t sure how it happened, but he knows the penalty for having more than 14 clubs in the bag — two shots for every hole of the violation with a maximum of four shots in a round.
That turned his 72 into a 5-over 76, leaving him tough odds to make the cut Friday. Taylor Pendrith was in the lead at 10-under 61.
"If you play golf long enough, weird stuff's going to happen out here."
An unfortunate 4-stroke penalty for Joel Dahmen leads to a 5-over first-round @ShrinersOpen.
He came into the week at No. 124 in the #FedExCup Fall standings, needing to stay inside the top 125 in order to… pic.twitter.com/2MI6k2Banj
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 18, 2024
“Never happened to me before,” Dahmen said. He said he travels with 15 or 16 clubs, like most players, depending on what he is testing.
“I played Tuesday and Wednesday out here,” he said. “We didn’t see it in there. It was an extra 4-iron, so I had two 4-irons in the bag.”
Dahmen said he noticed it on the fourth tee when he saw a 4-iron in a different spot, and it soon dawned on him it was an extra club. He went from even par to 4 over without hitting another shot, bringing in an official to confirm what he already knew.
“You just want to get so mad and you want to get mad at everything,” Dahmen said. “At the same time, just got to keep playing golf, and I didn’t do a great job of that afterwards.”
