Dahmen’s heartbreak, JT’s surprising advice, caddie intrigue

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we might miss a comma but never a two-foot putt. To the news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Facing the music.

On Sunday, Joel Dahmen kicked away a PGA Tour event, the Corales Puntacana Championship. He led after the first round. He led after the second round. He led after the third round. He even led after bogeying the 16th hole on Sunday. Then he missed a two-footer for par at No. 17 — and then bogeyed 18 to lose by one. If you’re like me, you were watching anxiously with gritted teeth and a sort of permanent wince; at the Monday Finish we appreciate that golf’s cruelty is part of its beauty but we have a tough time watching it in action.

Still, it was what Dahmen did after that left an even stronger impression: He spoke. It wasn’t a long interview, less than five minutes, but it left a strong impression, making the rounds on social media and serving as an example of why, as an athlete, the moments you most want to skip media may actually be the times you can benefit the most from talking.

I should say that I don’t think Joel was trying to “go viral” or do anything other than what he’s always done: Be honest and be himself. Still, it’s worth focusing for a moment on why people responded to this. Three quick things he accomplished:

1. People respect athletes facing the music. We’ve watched enough sports to know that, after finishing bogey-bogey-bogey, Dahmen probably wanted to crawl into a hole. The fact that he didn’t? And that he didn’t make excuses? We respect that.

“It’s not how you win a golf tournament, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “I don’t deserve to win it. Y’know, bogeying the last three is inexcusable.”

2. It also adds context to the moment. If you’re a golf fan, you want to hear what happened and there’s no better source than Dahmen himself. We already know he’s not superhuman, so pretending to be doesn’t do much good. Let’s get to the interesting stuff instead: Where, in the nerve-wracking psychological test that comes with trying to win the golf tournament, did things go sideways?

Take Dahmen’s explanation of his approach shot into No. 16 as one great example:

“We were fighting with, well, my golf swing, No. 1, for some of it, but we had a good number, we had a good plan,” he said. “We had 8-iron in there. If I could just flight it, it would come up probably just 20 feet short in the middle of the green … Tried to hit it a little harder and smashed it and pull-hooked in the wind. That’s just a nervy shot is what it is. Then you just can’t hit it left of that pin or you’re not going to get it up and down very often from over there.”

3. Most important, an honest explanation puts us in Joel’s shoes. In an alternate timeline where he says nothing and heads to the locker room? It’s an easy storyline: Joel Dahmen chokes. When he talks, though? He takes us into the tournament’s final moments alongside him.

“I don’t know what happened on the short one on 17,” he said. “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 yippy thing, it’s not like one of those things, but — bad time to do it.”

Now instead of “how the hell did he miss that two-foot putt” I hear his explanation and flip to, “Oh, you missed a shortie under insane pressure? Yeah, man — I get it. I have missed that putt with far less on the line.” This is remarkably powerful.

So Dahmen lost the tournament and everything that comes with it. He got a consolation prize, T2, which moves him up 18 spots, to No. 59 in the FedEx Cup standings. And he gained something far less tangible: a whole bunch of people’s respect.

“This one could take a while to get over. It’s one of those things, you learn more in defeat unfortunately,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to learn 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.”

We learn more about someone in defeat, too, whether it’s Justin Rose at the Masters or Dahmen here. And in each case you can’t help but hope that something more satisfying than defeat is right around the corner.

Facing the music — that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Justin Thomas broke a winless drought of nearly three years — dating back to the 2022 PGA Championship — when he took out Andrew Novak in a playoff at the RBC Heritage.

“I was nervous, but it was way different kind of nerves today. I felt very calm. I didn’t feel like I was going to win. I didn’t feel like I was going to lose. I was just playing,” Thomas said post-win. It paid off with a lengthy putt in the center of the center and a proper winner’s celebration on 18:

Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad picked up her first victory in just her third start as an LPGA Tour member, winning the JM Eagle LA Championship at El Caballero Country Club.

“Just shows that the rookies, I mean, we’re not here to mess around,” she said. “We came out here for a reason, and I think it shows that we’re ready to be out here.”

Neal Shipley won the LECOM Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour, making birdie on the fifth playoff hole to finish off the victory. The fan favorite and Netflix star had made just two of seven KFT cuts but had made those count with two top-15s; he really made this one count. Now he’s No. 3 on the tour’s points list — and that much closer to a PGA Tour card for 2026.

Ashun Wu won the DP World Tour’s Volvo China Open for the second time, a particularly meaningful moment because Wu, who is Chinese, also won this event a decade ago — his first of what is now a collection of five DPWT titles.

NOT-WINNERS

But not losers, either.

Andrew Novak’s playoff loss to Thomas was his second consecutive top-three finish and his fourth podium in his last 15 starts. No wins, but plenty of good news: he’s No. 15 in the FedEx Cup and has made $4.3 million this year.

The group at T3 at RBC was interesting, too: Daniel Berger, who hasn’t finished worse than T30 in his last eight starts, Mav McNealy, who’s logged three podium finishes in his last seven starts and Brian Harman, who won two weeks ago and seems to have really found something. All of the above are hoping to be interesting entries in the Ryder Cup conversation. (Also T3: Mackenzie Hughes, with his second consecutive top-10 finish after zero top-20s in nine starts to begin 2025.)

Scottie Scheffler once again contended without his best stuff; keep an eye on his frustration levels (tough to get used to winning and then suddenly not win) but he’s quietly finished 11th or better in six of eight starts this year. He was T8 alongside potential Ryder Cup partner Russell Henley.

On the LPGA Tour, Japanese rookie Akie Iwai finished just one shot outside a playoff when she bogeyed No. 18. And Lauren Coughlin, who grabbed her first win last season and starred at the Solheim Cup, finished T3 as she continued her climb up the Rolex Rankings. (She’s up to No. 8.)

And watch out for Eugenio Chacarra, the ex-LIV pro who has been playing the DP World Tour, won the Hero Indian Open and just finished T4 in China.

SHORT HITTERS

5 intriguing updates from around the golf world.

1. Caddie controversy? Nah, says the PGA Tour’s latest, greatest winner. Even though Thomas won in Hilton Head with Joe Greiner in his second week as fill-in, J.T. reiterated on SiriusXM Monday that he’ll be back to work with Matt “Rev” Minister once he’s healthy. We don’t know what’s next for Greiner, who was most recently on Max Homa’s bag for several successful seasons. But we know he seems to be damn good at what he does.

2. Y’know how Pinehurst just opened No. 10? Well, now No. 11 is on the way — designed by the legendary duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

3. More people watched Rory McIlroy’s Masters win than any playing since Patrick Reed’s 2018 victory. The CBS final-round broadcast averaged 12.7 million viewers and peaked at nearly 20 million. (More here.)

4. Ben Crane hasn’t been playing much PGA Tour golf of late but his Corales Puntacana appearance ended in misery when he was DQ’d for playing the wrong ball.

5. Legendary longtime amateur Jay Sigel — who won five USGA championships, third behind only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — died at 81.

ONE DUMB GRAPHIC

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Pros helping pros.

Justin Thomas turned to an interesting — but undeniably authoritative and effective — source for help on his putting: Xander Schauffele.

“I called Xander at the end of last year because I think he’s one of the best putters in fundamentals and not just putting but everything and I was just like, ‘Can I just pick your brain for like two or three hours, just talk to you about putting?’” Thomas said post-win on Sunday.

“The more [we were] talking, I’m like, ‘I don’t do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years.’ In 2017-18, I was very, very regimented in the things that I did, and how he said it is I had a home base and then I had no home base. I had things that I did, but it was a very vague bag of things and there was no consistency to it.

“I feel like I used to have a very good home base of fundamentals and things that I did.”

Thomas seems to have a home base again. He leads the Tour in putting average and he’s up to No. 24 in strokes gained putting, his best number in years and a massive improvement from 174th in the same category last year.

RYDER CUP WATCH

We have another confirmed American.

Justin Thomas’ win — plus his celebration — seemed like the only reminder we really needed that he’ll be on this U.S. squad. The Americans’ current top six seem like near-locks (Henley probably the only question mark, though I expect he’ll be there) but after that it feels like a wide-open race.

On the European side, Viktor Hovland’s T13 was enough to jump him inside the top 12, where we expect he’ll stay. Justin Rose at No. 3 still jumps out as whoa, he’s doing this again, huh?

Here are the current top-12s on each side (complete rankings here):

TEAM USA

1. Scottie Scheffler – 14579 points

2. Xander Schauffele – 11133

3. Collin Morikawa – 8586

4. Bryson DeChambeau – 8190

5. Russell Henley – 7824

6. Justin Thomas – 7583

–

7. Mav McNealy – 5745

8. Brian Harman – 5714

9. J.J. Spaun – 4778

10. Patrick Cantlay – 4329

11. Andrew Novak – 4258

12. Harris English – 3714

TEAM EUROPE

1. Rory McIlroy – 2864 points

2. Tyrrell Hatton – 991

3. Justin Rose – 870

4. Rasmus Højgaard – 870

5. Shane Lowry – 844

6. Ludvig Åberg – 810

–

7. Tommy Fleetwood – 687

8. Thomas Detry – 620

9. Matt Wallace – 572

10. Niklas Norgaard – 554

11. Laurie Canter – 521

12. Viktor Hovland – 486

ONE THING TO WATCH

Ludvig Åberg on the differences between Swedish and American golf culture:

You can watch the full interview with Ludvig here.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

It’s mudball season. But if that’s good enough for Augusta National, it’s plenty good enough for me at the munis. Sunrise has already boomeranged up to 6:06 a.m., which has me dreaming of a whole new world of early-morning tee times ahead…

We’ll see you next week!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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