ORLANDO, Fla. – Joel Dahmen was down to his last chance to keep his full PGA Tour card at the final tournament of the year. He missed the cut, headed home to Arizona to be with his newborn son and had a month to ponder a future that didn’t look terribly bright.
To be sure, teeing it up in a $20 million signature event at Bay Hill was not in his plans.
The new year of fewer cards — top 100 instead of 125 — and shorter fields left Dahmen uncertain about where he could play and how much. But he was reminded that good golf still pays off, and it earned him the final spot in the 72-man field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
“It’s nice to hang out with the big kids this week,” Dahmen said Wednesday. “Incredible event. Really hard golf course. It’s definitely elevated, signature event. You can feel it, and I’m just super excited to be here.”
How did this happen?
It wasn’t the gift of sponsor exemptions. Dahmen has asked for one every week, but he has received only one — at the WM Phoenix Open and that was the only cut he missed this year. Instead, he barely got into the field at Torrey Pines and tied for seventh, and he was among the last to get in the Cognizant Classic last week and tied for ninth by going bogey-free his last 27 holes.
It was enough — by five FedEx Cup points — to get the last spot over Jordan Spieth, who already had a sponsor exemption to Bay Hill.
“No, I could not see myself here,” the 38-year-old Dahmen said.