$4M-worth Joel Dahmen explains ‘Bizarr-o’ penalty situation at Shriners Children’s Open

A rare ruling met Joel Dahmen on Thursday (October 17) as he was penalized four strokes for having too many clubs in his bag. The $4 million-worth golfer was teeing up at the first round of the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas when he discovered having more than the allowed 14 clubs.

Dahmen, who made pars on his first two holes, was penalized two strokes for each hole. The pars were converted to a pair of double bogeys as he ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard with the maximum punishment allowed, which was four strokes. The golfer addressed the situation, dubbing it ‘bizarr-o.’ The PGA Tour star revealed that he tends to travel with 15 or 16 clubs to change and use based on conditions.

Explaining the situation, the 36-year-old golfer said he didn’t know how the extra club ended up in his bag during play. However, he steered away from blaming his caddie, Geno Bonnalie.

Joel Dahmen said in a press conference after the opening round at Shriner’s Children’s Open, as quoted by ASAP Sports:

“Bizarr-o. Never happened to me before. I travel with 15, 16 clubs. I think most people out here do depending on conditions and courses… You know, been traveling out here for a long time and never happened before. I'd like it blame Geno. That would be the easy thing to do. It's not his fault either. I played Tuesday and Wednesday out here. We didn't see it in there. It was an extra 4-iron, so I had two 4-irons in the bag…

"Why, I don't know. I don't know how it got there. It sucks. It sucks at the spot I'm in as well. Yeah, we got to 4 tee and I grabbed a water and I walked over to my bag and I saw a 4-iron that was in the wrong spot and our stuff is always in the right spot. It wasn't in the right spot. You know, you just want to get so mad and you want to get mad at everything. At the same time, just got to keep playing golf, and I didn't do a great job of that afterwards.”

Joel Dahmen stated it is “tough to refocus” after such a big ruling. The golfer, playing his 205th event on the circuit at the Shriners Children's Open, dubbed it a “frustrating and disappointing” experience. Furthermore, he went on to justify it by stating that “enough weird stuff will happen” if “you play golf long enough.”

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Joel Dahmen on the ‘weird’ clubs rule

Interestingly, Joel Dahmen said he didn’t even need to call a PGA Tour rules official to understand his mistake. The PGA Tour golfer said he knew the rule as it is “one of those weird ones” that sticks with the players. However, he ended up calling an official to confirm the ruling.

Joel Dahmen added:

“Unfortunately, you kind of know the rule. It's one of those weird ones that sticks with you. It happens maybe once a year… I knew it was a max of four, but I called over a rules official just to confirm everything, handed the club off, and played with 14 the rest of the way.”

The American seemed more disappointed than angry with the four-stroke penalty ruling. The golfer avoided blaming the mishap on his caddie Geno Bonnalie despite fans accusing the latter. It is pertinent to note that Dahmen famously called Bonnalie his ‘best friend’ during his claim to fame episode on Netflix’s Full Swing season one.