Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
Joel Dahmen hit the ball beautifully on Saturday at the Shriners Children’s Open, which launched him up the leaderboard.
After three-putting the par-5 9th hole on Saturday at the Shriners Children’s Open, Joel Dahmen wanted to go home.
He wanted someone else to play the back nine for him.
“I told Geno [Bonnalie, my caddy], I’m done,” Dahmen said after his round. “I’m impatient, and I’m grumpy, and then good things happened. Made a good birdie on 11. Then, I hooped an 8-iron on 12 and made an eagle on 15, and all of a sudden, I was pretty happy with how I played the back nine.”
Dahmen’s round was rather pedestrian until he arrived at the difficult par-4 12th, a 458-yard hole that ranked as the third hardest of the day on Saturday.
He found the fairway off the tee and then holed out from 178 yards for an eagle-two, which vaulted him up the leaderboard.
By then, he was 4-under on the day.
“It’s a really greasy pin back there next to the water,” Dahmen said of the 12th. “I hit a great shot. I even told Geno I hit it perfectly and played off the slope, and we didn’t expect it to go in, obviously, but when it does, it’s a huge bonus.”
Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
The 12th hole at TPC Summerlin, site of the 2023 Shriners Children’s Open.
Three holes later, at the par-4 15th, Dahmen’s tee shot found the fringe and finally got a putt to fall.
He then made a two-putt birdie on the next hole, the par-5 16th, which proved to be his last par breaker of the day.
“I’m hitting it really well,” Dahmen said. “My putter is a joke right now. It’s tough to shoot 7-under with bad putting, but I managed to do that. I’m hitting it great. I’m in the fairway a lot. My irons are pretty dialed in. If I can make some putts, it would be a great Sunday.”
Dahmen’s putter is ice cold, as he ranks 60th in the field in strokes gained putting.
He lost almost two strokes to the field on the greens on Saturday while leading the tournament in strokes gained: tee-to-green.
The former Washington Husky gained a whopping 6.56 shots from tee-to-green during the third round, which explains why he carded a 7-under 64.
He is now 12-under for the tournament, three strokes behind Tom Kim, who is the leader as of this writing.
But instead of going to the practice green to work on his putting, Dahmen headed right to the television.
His beloved Huskies are in a top-10 battle against the Oregon Ducks.
“Huge game for Washington,” Dahmen said. “I don’t have a plan; I’m just going to get to a TV and check it out.”
That leads us to ask, how do you not love Joel Dahmen?
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.
