Joel Dahmen

​Player Highlights

Even the most savvy golf insider might not be able to tell you much about the PC Financial Open or the Syncrude Boreal Open. But if you ask Joel Dahmen about them, he’ll tell you all you need to know. His victories in those early season PGA TOUR Canada events in 2014 helped him lead the tour’s Order of Merit wire-to-wire and capture Player of the Year honors. Those victories not only helped earn him exempt status on the Web.com Tour, they marked an end to a personally tumultuous decade that began with his mom’s death from pancreatic cancer when he was a junior in high school and ran through his despondency after failing to qualify for the Web.com Tour’s 2014 season. That abridged history neglects to mention Dahmen losing his golf scholarship at the University of Washington for academic reasons after one season and his own successful battle with testicular cancer, which was diagnosed in 2011. The Q-school miss in late 2013 was rock bottom for the now Scottsdale, Ariz., resident. “That was probably the lowest point of my professional career,” he says. “My girlfriend gave me a big kick in the butt. She said, ‘Get a job or go play golf.’ ” The choice was easy and, fortunately, vindicated by his 2014 season in Canada. Last year, in his first full season on the Web.com Tour, Dahmen played in all 25 events, making 13 cuts, including three top-10s and six top-25s. That he handled the ups and downs of his rookie season with equanimity did not surprise his fans. As he once said after his major life victory: “If you can get through cancer, you can pretty much get through anything.”