by PGA Tour golfer Joel Dahmen received a four-stroke penalty in the first round of the tournament Shriners Children’s Open.
On the fourth tee at TPC Summerlin, it was discovered that the 36-year-old had more than 14 clubs in his bag.
Dahmen had a total of 15 clubs in the game after he accidentally went out with another 4-iron.
He started the tournament with two straight pars, but his score was later changed to two double bogeys.
The PGA Tour’s official communications team confirmed the penalty with a post on X on Thursday evening.
It read: “Joel Dahmen was penalized four strokes in the opening round of the Shriners Children’s Open when he was found to have more than 14 clubs in his bag on the fourth tee.”
Dahmen has one PGA Tour victory to his credit, which came in 2021 in the Dominican Republic at the Corales Puntacana Championship.
He rose to superstardom when he appeared in the first and second seasons of the Netflix documentary Full Swing.
His caddy is Geno Bonnalie.
What did Dahmen say about the incident?
Dahmen finished the opening round with a 5-over 76.
He admitted he was a bit unsettled after the penalty.
But he refused to blame Bonnalie, describing the situation as “bizarre”.
“This has never happened to me before,” he said.
“I travel with 15, 16 clubs. I think most people out here do that, depending on the conditions and courses.”
“You know, [I have] I’ve been out here for a long time and this has never happened. I want to blame Geno for this. That would be the easiest.
“It’s not his fault either. I played out here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We didn’t see it there. It was an extra 4 iron, so I had two 4 irons in the bag.”
He continued: “Why, I don’t know. I don’t know how it got there I went to my bag and saw a 4 iron that was in the wrong place and our stuff was always in the right place. It wasn’t in the right place.
“You know, you just want to get angry so much and you want to get angry at everything. At the same time [you have] I just had to keep playing golf, and I didn’t do very well after that.
“It’s hard to concentrate again. If you take the penalties you have a 1-1 lead, which isn’t very good out here today. Frustrating, disappointing, but if you play golf long enough, strange things happen out here.”
When asked about his immediate reaction to discovering the additional club, Dahmen said, “I think there may have been a few swear words, but I had a lot of people supporting me today and helping our family foundation.”
“It was one of those moments where you just want to lose it and get angry, angry at yourself, angry at Geno, angry at the world.”
“But if you look around and people donate a lot of money to our foundation, life isn’t so bad.”
“It’s a mistake. It will happen. Unfortunately, it happened at that moment.”
“But yeah, after that I just took one off the middle and made a lot of birdie putts; We just couldn’t do it today.”
“Yes, one of those where you live and learn. Geno feels terrible. I feel terrible.”
“We’ll hit it up tomorrow morning and try to make some birdies.”
