‘I Don’t Deserve To Win It’ - Joel Dahmen Gives Brutally Honest Assessment Of ‘Inexcusable’ Corales Puntacana Championship Collapse

For over three rounds of the Corales Puntacana Championship, Joel Dahmen had looked set to claim his second victory at the event.

After largely dominating the first three days, he took a three-shot lead into the final round, and, despite the leaderboard tightening as the day progressed, he was still in control with just three holes to go.

However, the American, who won the event in 2021 for his one PGA Tour title to date, fell apart with a late collapse featuring three successive bogeys to complete his round. The most galling was a missed putt on the 17^th where, incredibly, Dahmen’s effort lipped out from inches.

Even then, the destiny of the title was in Dahmen’s hands, after challenger Michael Thorbjornsen, in the group ahead, fell out of contention with a bogey at the last and Garrick Higgo headed to the clubhouse on 14-under, level with Dahmen as he approached the 18^th.

With Dahmen needing his second birdie of the week on the par-4 to close out victory, his fortunes went the other way when he missed his par putt to spark celebrations from Higgo, who was by that point on the driving range anticipating a playoff.

Afterwards, Dahmen didn’t hold back on the way he handled the final few holes, giving a brutally honest assessment of his failings.

He said: “I think I'm in a little bit of shock, honestly. It's not how you win a golf tournament, I'll tell you that. I don't deserve to win it. You know, bogeying the last three is inexcusable.”

Dahmen also admitted that sometimes the nerves get the better of him. He said: “Middle of the fairway with an 8-iron on 16 to hit it where I hit it, you can't get up and down over there. I don't know what happened on the short one on 17. I mean I'm obviously nervous, but unfortunately I'm prone to that at times. You can call it lapse in concentration. It's not like a yippee thing, it's not like one of those things, but bad time to do it.

“And then 18's just a really bad hole. We had 220 pin and wind surfed on it and hit a very average chip. I hit a good putt. I actually thought it was a straight putt and broke a little left on me. All of a sudden I wake up and I lost the golf tournament.”

Naturally, following such a disappointing end to a tournament he had looked like winning, Dahmen admitted the loss could take some time to process. However, he doesn’t have too long to dwell on his disappointment as he is teaming up with Harry Higgs at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

He thinks the unique event could be just the tonic to put the events of the Dominican Republic event behind him.

“This one could take a while to get over,” he said. “It's one of those things, you learn more in defeat unfortunately. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. Like I said, I still think I'm in a little bit of shock. Felt like I was in a good head space. I was in a good head space but sometimes your body doesn't cooperate. Kept really calm and cool out there. Even when you three-putt 13 and miss a short one on 12, you're still fine, I'm still putting the ball in play and still giving myself opportunities.

“But yeah, for next week, I mean, it's probably the best week for me next week is to have fun, have someone to rely on, have someone else's ball in play. It's going to be a great trip with - my wife's coming in town without our kids, so we're going to have a great four days of just enjoying each other. Yeah, yeah, this one's going to sting for a while.”