Joel Dahmen at the 2024 Sony Open in Hawaii. | Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Joel Dahmen has grown in popularity thanks to his great sense of humor, which has been on full display at the Sony Open.
This week’s Sony Open in Hawaii is a perfect example of why every professional golf tournament should have a 36-hole cut.
Dozens of players fought hard to make the weekend in the hopes of earning a paycheck that would help offset the expenses of traveling to play in Hawaii.
One of those happened to be Joel Dahmen, who greatly influenced the cut-line.
Dahmen arrived at the par-5 9th—his 18th hole of the day—at 2-under for the tournament. He sat in a tie for 65th at that point, as the projected cut line was at 2-under.
The top 60 players and ties qualify for the final two rounds, while anyone below that position misses the 36-cut hole cut.
Thus, if Dahmen birdied the benign par-5, he would finish his round at 3-under and move the cut line up in the process. The odds were in his favor to do so, as the 9th at Waialae has been the easiest hole this week. It has played almost a full stroke under par.
Alas, after pulling his tee shot into the left fairway bunker, Dahmen hit his second shot about 50 yards short of the green. He then hit a pitch to about five feet, giving himself an excellent look at birdie.
But Dahmen missed the short putt, much to the delight of many others.
And in true Dahmen fashion, he had the perfect response on Twitter to his missed putt at the 9th.
“I should have a lot of dinners coming my way,” Dahmen posted.
Seventeen other players also finished at 2-under through 36 holes, including 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Eric Cole, and Canadian Corey Conners, who held a share of the 36-hole lead at last year’s PGA Championship.
Perhaps these three players will wine and dine Dahmen for keeping them in Honolulu for the weekend. At the very least, they should thank the former Washington Husky for missing that short putt at the 9th.
But Dahmen should get some free food as a sign of thanks.
Bon Appétit, Joel!
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
