ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — 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. "It was the first time in a long time that there was a lot of unknowns in my career. ... I think most players didn’t really know the schedule, we didn't know what we were going to get into. So I think for me the biggest thing was that every single start is a big start.
“It was just taking advantage of the opportunities, and so far I’ve done that.”
These next two weeks — Bay Hill and The Players Championship — are huge for a guy in Dahmen's position. He is not eligible for the three events after The Players, and only his good play kept him from having off five straight weeks.
But it's a strong field. Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, has won twice at Bay Hill in the last four years. The field features 19 of the top 20 in the world, and that includes Justin Thomas, who is competing for the first time since the Ryder Cup after back surgery.
“I've got to be realistic. I haven't played a tournament in six months,” Thomas said. “I feel like I can do anything I want with the golf ball at any given time. It's just going to be the concentrating for four-and-a-half, five hours on a very difficult test.”
Austin Smotherman, who graduated from the Korn Ferry Tour last year, also played his way into the field with a runner-up finish last week.
“That's part of why people love seeing maybe slightly bigger fields, seeing the underdog story, is that on a given week there’s a lot of guys in the world that can play golf,” Collin Morikawa said. "But at the same time opportunities aren’t just handed out to everyone. You have to go and earn it.
“Joe was given an opportunity. He's taken that opportunity and turned it into something great.”
It didn't start out that way.
There was joy being around his newborn. There was Thanksgiving dinner to host. And then there was time on the couch. The golf clubs were put away. It was Dec. 27 when his wife casually asked him if he thought about his immediate future and Dahmen realized he should probably practice.
“Yeah, the path to the tour is rougher. The path to stay on tour is tougher than it's ever been,” Dahmen said. “There's a lot of talk about being more of a closed shop. ... But on the other side I'm proof that in four events you can play well enough and earn your way into these events. And if you play well in one of these next two, you keep going on the upward trend.”
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