Joel Dahmen's career on the PGA Tour has, somewhat, sky rocketed in the past five years, with the American becoming a fan-favorite in the golf world.
Claiming his first PGA Tour title at the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, he then shot into the public eye via Netflix's Full Swing docuseries, before almost losing his Tour card in 2024.
Now though, it appears Dahmen has re-found his form and, at the Farmers Insurance Open, he finds himself in contention going into the final round, with one reason being his off-season training with a Navy SEAL.
Speaking to Amanda Balionis following his third round at Torrey Pines, Dahmen revealed that he had been working during the Fall to "get better at life", with the 37-year-old stating: "My performance coach, Chris Bertram, had this wonderful idea. He works for a Navy SEAL out here (in San Diego) for his other clients and he thought it was a good idea for me to get toughened up in a mental way.
"When you think of Navy SEAL stuff, you think crazy, physical stuff but, honestly, it was more mental than anything. So, we did some water training. I'm not Michael Phelps in the pool, that's for sure, but I got better at life and I had Geno (caddie) by my side as well, which was really fun.
"I don't think I would have got through the Fall if I didn't have that training. I can dig deeper than I thought I could before and there's more in there, so I'm trying to tap into that more often. We'll find out (in the final round), but the way I played Sunday in Sea Island (The RSM Classic) felt like a final round of trying to win a golf tournament.
"I've put myself in a position where I can make a great start, I handled myself really well today, nerves were limited and I was pretty comfortable. I'm looking forward to having a chance tomorrow."
The Sunday round that Dahmen was alluding to was The RSM Classic back in November where, going into the final day, he needed to go low if he had any chance of keeping his PGA Tour card and status going into 2025.
Impressively, round Sea Island Golf Club, Dahmen went out in a five-under front nine of 30, and a one-under back nine, which included one of the “most stressful” par putts of his career at the 18th hole, meant a round of the day 64.
Finishing 124th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, it meant Dahmen had locked-up his playing rights for 2025, with the former PGA Tour winner stating after his final round: “I thought a lot about everything. It came down to the last putt this week. I hit thousands of golf shots this year, missed a lot of cuts, had a lot of opportunities to do everything, so I didn’t have to come to this. I was thankful for the opportunity today, but I don’t want to go through this ever again."
