PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Four days ago, Joel Dahmen shot a 3-over 75 at the Valspar Championship Monday qualifier to finish nine shots outside of a spot in the field.

Fast forward to present day, where Dahmen carded a second-round 70 at Innisbrook Resort's Copperhead Course to make the weekend at the Valspar.

Such is the ever-fluctuating state of life on the PGA TOUR. Sometimes, all you can do is sit and wait, as Dahmen did until Tuesday night, when he got the call that he made it into the Valspar field after Max Greyserman withdrew.

"The game humbles you quickly but also can recenter you and ground you," said Dahmen after his round on Friday. "I didn't play well there on Monday either, but you knew I had a good chance of getting in the field, and so it was nice little reset to hit some striped range balls on not a perfect golf course and realize how lucky we are to be out here on TOUR."

Dahmen has had mixed results this season, with top-10 finishes at the Farmers Insurance Open and Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches but missed cuts in his last two starts, the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard and THE PLAYERS Championship. He knew he would need a good round on Friday after opening the Valspar with a 1-over 72 to make the cut at 1 over.

Starting on the back nine in Round 2, Dahmen opened with 10 pars before stumbling with a bogey on No. 2, which brought him to 2-over par. He flipped the switch with approaches to 6 and 8 feet for birdie on Nos. 4 and 7.

"The grind of my last seven really stayed patient, stuck to the game plan, sometimes my mind can wander a little bit," said Dahmen. "As much as I do love my family, I didn't want another weekend with them to figure out all the, you know, that's just a lot of extra stuff. So just really happy with the grind. I made great putts on four or five of the last holes, and, yeah, I'm really happy right now.

It's the latest chapter in Dahmen's quest to secure full status for the 2027 season. "It's going to be nice to have a weekend tee time and the thing about this golf course is as well as even par (is), if you can shoot 6-, 7-, 8-under on the weekend, which is doable if you play good golf you're way up the leaderboard at the end of the week," he said. "So a golf course like this makes it extra important to make a cut."

Another big name who will be joining Dahmen this weekend is Justin Thomas, who battled back from a first-round 72 with a second-round 69, including a 2-under, bogey-free second nine, to land at 1 under. Thomas is coming off a T8 at THE PLAYERS in his second tournament start since returning from back surgery.

Florida native Brooks Koepka was even par after his front nine before turning on the jets with a back-nine 67 to jump well inside the cut line and straight into contention, leading the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and gaining strokes on the greens. Keegan Bradley repeated his impressive performance to make the cut at THE PLAYERS, carding a 69 to sneak in by one shot. He was 2 over after an ugly double bogey on the par-4 sixth hole, but rallied with a 2-under back nine.

Sahith Theegala (7 over) and Max Homa (10 over) found themselves well on the wrong side of the cut line. It's the first missed cut of the season for Theegala, who heavily struggled with his approach play and short game at the Copperhead Course, after accumulating three top 10s and five top 25s so far.

Ben Griffin missed his third straight cut after bogeying three of his last four holes in Round 2 to land at 2 over. Wyndham Clark also missed by one shot. He fell victim to the Snake Pit with a double bogey on the par-4 16th hole. Defending champion Viktor Hovland struggled to a 4-over 75 to miss the cut by two shots after contending last week at THE PLAYERS.