Joel Dahmen in ‘shock’ after falling one short at Corales Puntacana Championship

Joel Dahmen famously once said: “It’s so hard to win a golf tournament.” He spoke those words after winning the 2021 Corales Puntacana Championship, his first PGA TOUR title, in an emotional scene with caddie Geno Bonnalie that featured in the debut season of Netflix’s “Full Swing” docuseries – Dahmen’s episode propelling him to a new level of notoriety among sports fans.

Four years later at the same Corales Puntacana event, those angsty-yet-uplifting words took a darker light for the veteran pro.

Dahmen closed with three consecutive bogeys at Corales Golf Course, including a missed par putt from roughly 3 feet at the par-3 17th hole, to finish one shy of winner Garrick Higgo, who made birdie at the par-4 18th on a windswept Sunday in the Dominican Republic. It marked a sudden turn of events for Dahmen, who held a three-stroke lead through 54 holes and closed in 4-over 76, the highest final-round score of the top 37 finishers at Corales GC.

Dahmen was gracious in defeat but understandably numb to the outcome, having come so close to becoming the first two-time “King of Corales” at the Additional Event which offers 300 FedExCup points and a two-year TOUR exemption to the winner.

“I think I'm in a little bit of shock, honestly,” Dahmen said afterward. “It's not how you win a golf tournament, I'll tell you that. I don't deserve to win it. You know, bogeying the last three is inexcusable. 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 yippy thing, it's not like one of those things, but bad time to do it.

“Certainly was nervous,” he continued. “I think in the past I've tried to fight against it, and recently I've tried to take it more head-on. Like when you're nervous … have the adrenaline, like, attack that and embrace and run with that ... there's a little bit of adrenaline when you're shooting 62 (in Round 1) but you're attacking and going after it, and today I wanted to be on the offense, and I really did. … Obviously you have to control your breathing a little bit and try to control your heart rate, but at the same time you're attacking and playing offense. I try to stay aggressive with my golf swings. I did, but just didn't work out. Sucks.”

Shortly after departing the 18th green, Dahmen made a point to find Higgo and congratulate him on the victory. Dahmen, 37, knows how a breakthrough week can have lasting implications on one’s TOUR status and eligibility, and the magnitude of Higgo’s triumph wasn’t lost on him – even amidst his personal dismay.

For Higgo, who began the year with limited TOUR status and split the last few months between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA TOUR, the victory means full PGA TOUR status through 2027 – a massive upgrade from toggling between two tours and monitoring alternate lists on Friday evenings while mapping out travel plans. Five months ago, Dahmen was on the verge of losing his full TOUR card and returning to the Korn Ferry Tour (at least part-time) before a closing 64 at The RSM Classic when he needed 65 or better to keep his full card. That performance indicated that he can rise to the occasion in pressure situations, as Higgo did on the 72nd hole at Corales Golf Club, and Dahmen respected it.

Despite the rocky finish, Dahmen will take plenty of good from the week. He now stands No. 69 on the season-long FedExCup standings (after beginning the week at No. 77), with the top 100 on the FedExCup Fall standings after The RSM Classic in November earning full PGA TOUR status for 2026.

Dahmen doesn’t want any part of that bubble this year (the first with just 100 full cards, down from 125) – and his form for most of the week in the Dominican Republic proved he’s capable of winning again on TOUR. He stormed out of the gates with rounds of 62-66, and a third round 71 gave him a three-stroke cushion into Sunday. He held tough for most of the final round in demanding conditions, and he was just three holes away from a second TOUR title.

Dahmen believes he’ll be back – perhaps as soon as next week, where he’ll pair with good friend Harry Higgs at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. That doesn’t mean it will be easy to wipe the sting of the loss from his conscious mind. This marked Dahmen’s 221st start on TOUR (he won the 2021 Corales Puntacana in his 111th), and he knows these opportunities can be fleeting. Although he can learn plenty from the experience, thinking back to the nerves and how they impacted him down the stretch, that doesn’t change the black-and-white outcome: Someone else won a trophy, and he did not.

To the end, Dahmen’s post-round comments were an indication of why he has endeared himself to so many in recent years: He’s honest and he doesn’t sugar-coat things, offering full transparency of what Sunday meant to him. Four years ago at the Corales Puntacana, the euphoria was conveyed through that memorable phrase – “It’s so hard to win a golf tournament” – as years of past close calls washed away in one moment of triumph.

This week, he was so, so close to revisiting that moment.

“This one could take a while to get over,” Dahmen admitted. “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.

“This one’s going to sting for a while.”