2 weeks Ago By Joshua Mbu
Full Swing fan favorite Joel Dahmen suffered a heartbreaking collapse at the Corales Puntacana Championship after having one hand on the PGA title before losing by one shot. The PGA Tour cult hero, who just last year was fighting for his future in Tour , won at Corales in 2021 and came within a whisker of claiming a second title on Sunday before his brutal collapse. In February, the 37-year-old was in high spirits alongside Jordan Spieth - but this time blew a two-shot lead and tied for second behind tournament winner Garrick Higgo.
Dahmen recorded a bogey on the par-4 16th, cutting his lead to one, but it was on the 18th where his fate was sealed. The PGA Tour ace missed a two-footer, finalizing a Sunday to forget. “This one could take a while to get over,” he said.
“It’s one of those things, you learn more in defeat unfortunately. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. “Like I said, I still think I’m in a little bit of shock.
Felt like I was in a good head space. I was in a good head space but sometimes your body doesn’t cooperate.” "It’s not how you win a golf tournament, I’ll tell you that.
I don’t deserve to win it," he added. “You know, bogeying the last three is inexcusable. Middle of the fairway with an 8-iron on 16 to hit it where I hit it, you can’t get up and down over there.
“I don’t know what happened on the short one on 17. I mean I’m obviously nervous, but unfortunately, I’m prone to that at times. You can call it lapse in concentration.
It’s not like a yippee thing, it’s not like one of those things, but bad time to do it. "And then 18’s just a really hard hole. We had 220 pin and wind surfed on it and hit a very average chip.
I hit a good putt. I actually thought it was a straight putt and broke a little left on me. All of a sudden, I wake up and I lost the golf tournament.
” Meanwhile, Higgo clinched a first Tour in four years. "I’d say it’s definitely a bit of a relief, but I’ve truly enjoyed the journey, it was definitely hard to take finishing 135 on the FedEx last year, but this is unbelievable, and this is why I play the game,” Higgo said. “You know, the journey, like I’m going to go through a down again, everybody does, I’m going to have ups.
I just truly enjoy the journey.”.
