ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Did you ever doubt it, Joel?!
I was never worried!
Never a doubt!
Geno Bonnalie, Joel Dahmen’s longtime caddie and trusty sidekick, couldn’t contain his excitement on Sunday afternoon as the RSM Classic wound down at usually sleepy Sea Island Golf Club. Soon Bonnalie and Dahmen were cracking open a couple tallboys of Sweetwater IPA; it didn’t take long before Bonnalie was throwing beer-before-liquor to the wind.
Who cares if Dahmen still had a car wash of interviews to do. It felt like he’d won the dang tournament, not finished a pedestrian T-35.
But in a sense, Dahmen had won.
At No. 124 in the season’s final FedExCup standings, the 37-year-old Dahmen narrowly – by approximately eight points – kept his PGA Tour card for the eighth straight year. Two days after sinking an emotional 6-footer to make the cut on the number, Dahmen holed another nervy par save from similar distance to cap a heroic 6-under 64, just enough to maintain his spot inside the top 125 and, by virtue, his fully exempt status.
Bonnalie had predicted this all along.
“I never saw us not finishing in the top 125,” Bonnalie said. “I don’t know if that’s arrogant or whatever, but maybe I just didn’t want to admit that we were really close to losing a full-time job. … It’s crazy to think that if a 6-footer doesn’t go in, we probably don’t get a start until Puerto Rico. Now, he makes it, and all of a sudden, it’s, ‘I’ll see you at Sony in a few weeks.’”
Hayden Springer’s future is a bit cloudier. A few minutes before an elated Dahmen strutted into Sea Island’s performance center, the RSM’s main hub for scoring and interviews, a soft-spoken Springer stood in front of a microphone, still attempting to process being on the other side of things.
Having fallen a shot shy of keeping his full card, the 27-year-old Springer would be headed to final stage of Q-School next month. Everything after that, though, is up in the air.
“Just continue forward, that’s really all that we can do,” Springer said. “Just press on, one shot at a time, one step at a time.”
It’s been a tough last year for Springer. Last October, he and his wife, Emma, lost their 3-year-old daughter, Sage, who was born with Trisomy 18, a rare genetic disorder where, in most cases, the life expectancy is less than 12 months. A few weeks later, Springer earned his PGA Tour card for the first time via Q-School, though like many players deep in the reorder category, he mustered few starts to start his rookie campaign. He posted four top-10s, including at the John Deere Classic, where he opened with 59, but a stretch of six consecutive missed cuts in the spring left him scrambling to make up ground this fall.
Yet, Springer had a chance at the end. He entered the RSM ranked 128th in points, and by Sunday morning, he sat inside the bubble, at No. 122.
The Springers, devout Christians, lean on their faith heavily. Lately, one Bible verse has provided them peace: Philippians 4:6–7, which reads, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
“We’ve been through harder, we’ve lived through worse things, and God’s always been faithful to us,” Emma Springer said in Sunday’s disappointing aftermath, “and so, whatever happens, it’s going to be OK, and we’re going to be taken care of. … That doesn’t mean that we don’t care about what happens out here, but this is just one of those things; we ride the wave, and golf is one that has a lot of waves.”
After years of grinding on mini-tours, Springer cashed over $1.1 million this season. The couple, who have a 2-year-old named Annie, are expecting their third child in mid-January. They also just moved into a new house, about 10 miles closer to Hayden’s parents in Trophy Club, Texas.
Springer barely fretted over the projections this fall. He knew letting the points consume him wasn’t going to change that fact that he still needed to hit the shots. So, on Sunday morning, before the most important round of his career, he woke up, helped get Annie ready for daycare and then headed to the range on a picturesque morning. It was chilly, but moments before teeing off, Springer slipped off his baby-blue pullover to reveal a light-pink, short-sleeved polo.
On Sundays, the Springers wear pink, Sage’s favorite color.
On this Sunday, though, Springer didn’t have his best stuff. Plagued by a two-way miss off the tee, Springer hit three water balls and had three approach shots blocked by trees or other foliage. He bounced in and out of the top 125 all day, but strengthened by Sage’s memory, Springer fought valiantly and calmly.
He fell to No. 127 after leaving a 32-foot birdie putt on the lip at the par-3 sixth and then yanked his drive at the par-5 seventh behind a tree, only to wedge his third shot to 7 feet and roll in his first birdie of the round, a make that vaulted Springer to No. 123. Springer turned right at No. 125 but proceeded to fan his drive at the par-4 10th into the marsh. He nearly saved par from 15 feet, and then responded to that bogey with an easy birdie at the short par-4 11th to move from No. 128 to No. 126.
As Springer neared the closing stretch, it became clear that he’d need two birdies in his final four holes to have a shot at keeping his card. He got one right away, at the par-5 15th, striping a 3-wood from 281 yards to 60 feet to set up the two-putt birdie.
But then disaster struck. Springer hooked his tee ball at the par-4 16th into the water. As the ball splashed, Springer slouched over like he’d been punched in the gut.
“That tee shot sucked,” Springer said. “That was just the total wrong shot, wrong time.”
Springer hit the flagstick with his fourth shot, nearly holing out for what would’ve been a miraculous par, but after stuffing his tee shot at the par-3 17th, he lipped out his 8-footer for birdie. Springer’s closing birdie, which capped a roller-coaster 70, mattered little.
He ended up No. 127 in the FedExCup, six points behind Sam Ryder, who finished among Nos. 101-125 for a record sixth time. Springer can improve his conditional status at final stage, though even if he does, with the PGA Tour moving to only 100 players maintaining fully exempt status next season, the task will be tall for Springer regardless.
Which is why Springer tries his hardest to remain positive.
“I think there’s more for me,” Springer said. “I know that I can, you know, perform better and do it for a long time. So, I mean, yeah, I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of the fight, but I think that there’s more in there.”
Optimism has been difficult for Dahmen as he endured his worst season, at least statistically, since his rookie year in 2016-17. He collected a measly four top-25s, including just one top-10, in 30 starts. When he extended his season on Friday, he broke down in tears. Geno, with one glance at his boss, also lost it.
“He came over and we hugged there because we knew what that one was for,” Bonnalie said.
Dahmen wasn’t done yet, even after a third-round 70, which was marked by a double bogey at the par-5 seventh, Dahmen’s third-to-last hole of the round. He still had hope, albeit a sliver, but as Dahmen drove to pick up his son, Riggs, from daycare on Saturday afternoon, he began to think about how cool it was to raise a kid on the PGA Tour – and about how devastating it would be not to, at least regularly.
For the next couple hours, as Riggs played happily at their rental home, Dahmen somberly stared at the wall. His wife, Lona, finally broke through the grieving.
“She was like, ‘Are you OK?’” Dahmen recalled. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not OK. I want this to happen.’ She’s like, ‘Well, you can still play golf tomorrow, right? It’s not over.’
“And that was kind of one of those things, like the switch flipped.”
The Dahmens – Riggs included – and Bonnalie loosened up Sunday morning with an impromptu dance party in their kitchen. Four holes into his final round, Dahmen freed himself up more by ripping back a 55-degree wedge into the cup from 113 yards for eagle, a shot that kickstarted a run of four birdies in his next seven holes.
But when Dahmen reached the seventh tee, again his 16th hole and where he’d doubled the previous day, he started to feel nerves like he’d never felt before. That’s when Bonnalie stepped in to earn his paycheck.
Dahmen playfully admits that Bonnalie isn’t always the world’s best caddie, but on Dahmen’s final nine Sunday?
“This was the greatest performance he ever put on,” Dahmen said. “Like he was so chill that I was thinking I could almost make bogey at the last.”
Steady on the outside, Bonnalie was still torn inside about whether Dahmen needed to birdie the par-4 ninth, his final hole, to be safe. Dahmen found the green before sending his 46-foot birdie putt about 6 feet by.
Now, Dahmen was left with another make-or-break roll, this one tougher than the one on Friday because it was downhill, left to right, and with about a cup of break.
“I’ve had a lot of those,” Dahmen said, “and I’ve made a lot of those.”
Body shaking, Dahmen sank it.
“I can’t imagine what you felt standing over that!” Bonnalie shouted afterward.
“It came down to the last putt this week,” Dahmen said. “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.”
Meanwhile, Springer would undoubtedly love another shot.
