“I‘ve been lucky enough for the past six or seven years that I don’t have to worry about it,” Joel Dahmen optimistically said after finishing at T14 at the World Wide Technology Championship. But that all changed after a missed cut at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Now, heading into the final event of the fall season—the RSM Classic, his future on the PGA Tour feels anything but secure.

This week isn’t just about the leaderboard. For players like Dahmen, who sit on the periphery of the standings, it’s about survival. The stakes couldn’t be higher; finishing between 51st and 60th in the final standings would secure a spot in the initial Aon Next 10 for the 2025 season, which includes coveted invites to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. And if he fails to do so, the outlook for next season becomes a lot more uncertain. So now there is no room for Dahmen to dwell on “what ifs.”

Dahmen clearly knows what’s on the line, and it’s been weighing on him heavily. “It’s like you’re sleeping on the lead of a major every night,” he said, trying to explain the pressure. “But a little more stressful than that.” Even with all this stress, there’s one thing helping him keep it together: his family, and especially his young son. “The only thing that really gets my mind off everything is my kid, and that’s been great,” Dahmen shared. “He’s a ton of fun, and we’re having a lot of fun with him.”

Joel Dahmen got emotional in his interview ahead of the final event on the weekend, saying, “I have a lot of great people around me, so it’s… it’s hard on them.” He had a lump in his throat, and his eyes started to tear up as he remembered his family and friends who supported and loved him through everything. “But it’s just because they love me and care about me,” Dahmen added.

But let’s be real—family moments, as special as they are, don’t magically erase the weight of what’s at stake. “You can’t get away from anything,” Dahmen admitted. And as he talked about his son, his emotions caught up with him, putting him in a vulnerable spot only a father under pressure could understand. He and his wife Lona, welcomed their first child back in January 2023.

For Dahmen, this week is about more than just golf. It’s about proving to himself that he belongs here.

How did Joel Dahmen end up losing his Tour Card?

Joel Dahmen’s fight to keep his PGA Tour card took a drastic turn earlier this season at the Shriners Children’s Open, where an unexpected mistake cost him dearly. Things were looking fine until the fourth hole when Dahmen realized he had a big problem—he was carrying an extra 4-iron in his bag, breaking the PGA Tour’s 14-club limit rule.

The rule is pretty straight, if you carry more than 14 clubs, it’s a two-stroke penalty per hole, up to a maximum of four strokes. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to Dahmen. His self-reported mistake turned what could’ve been a decent start into a nightmare. Two pars became double bogeys, and suddenly, dropping his score to a disastrous five-over 76 and leaving him at the bottom of the leaderboard.

With the penalty putting him in an early hole, the damage was done. Despite his efforts to recover, the Shriners Children’s Open ended up being a turning point, not the kind Dahmen wanted — and it set the stage for a season where keeping his PGA Tour card slipped further out of reach. You see, it only takes one small misstep to send everything spiraling, and for Dahmen, this was that moment.

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