The post ‘Saying no is a powerful thing’: What Joel Dahmen learned from Netflix fame appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Saying no is a powerful thing’: What Joel Dahmen learned from Netflix fame appeared first on Golf.

Before the show, Dahmen was a PGA Tour journeyman with an endearing personality and a relatable story of overcoming adversity. The appearance on Netflix’s first docuseries on the PGA Tour took that story and broadcast it to the masses.

Dahmen’s play has taken a hit in the two years since Netlfix released the first season of Full Swing, crescendoing last month when Dahmen nearly lost his full-time status on the PGA Tour, firing a dramatic final-round 64 at the RSM Classic to just sneak into the Top 125 of the standings.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, Dahmen explained some of the challenges he’s faced personally with his newfound fame.

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“I would say the first year of Netflix, so the prior year was the hardest year of managing time because you have so many opportunities coming your way,” Dahmen told Subpar co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “And it’s easy to say yes to everything because new opportunities coming in means more money, it means more awesome stuff, meeting new people. All these opportunities are coming to you and I didn’t manage that very well because also I had my kid like three weeks before Netflix came out, season one. So that was all new, everything’s new coming at you. And I don’t think I handled that as well as I could have.”

But, like most golfers who have made it far enough to earn their PGA Tour card, let alone win as Dahmen has, he figured out how to adjust. He hired renowned sports psychologist and performance coach Chris Bertram to help him learn simply how to ask for help.

He said he didn’t get settled with it early enough in the year, which is why he found himself teetering on the edge of losing his card, but he feels in a better position now, which explains how he fought back in the final round in Georgia to keep his card.

“Saying no is a powerful thing. I’m in a position now where I can say no. And that is a really cool thing,” Dahmen said. “And you just say yes to the things you really want to do and that you’re passionate about. And with my great partners, I can say yes to more of those things instead of divided time around so many other things. So I am, I’m excited for what’s to come.”

You can listen to Dahmen’s complete Subpar appearance here, or watch the video below.

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The post Joel Dahmen has the yips (no, not that kind) appeared first on Golf.

The post Joel Dahmen has the yips (no, not that kind) appeared first on Golf.

In this week’s GOLF Subpar episode, Joel Dahmen explained some of his clashes with the yips, which included the punch-out yips and the 7-iron yips. (“Sahith Theegala also has that as well, right?” Dahmen asked. Yes, he does.)

But Dahmen’s yips go beyond the golf course. Like, for instance, he’s currently battling the autograph yips.

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“Oh, bad; it’s not great,” he said. “I’ve never pretended to have a great signature. My handwriting is putrid. Like you think if you can hit a golf ball you can probably sign your name, but I struggle with that whole deal. But yeah, the cursive ‘J’ looks OK, but I freeze on the ‘E’ right now. The pen just stops for a full second and then it will go and get a little sloppy. … Let’s say you sign for 15 or 20 kids after the round. Right now I’m taking twice as long as other guys to get through this line and it is not pretty either.”

But his yips don’t end there. He also has the parking yips.

Dahmen explained that his trusty caddie, Geno Bonnalie, usually drives when they are at tournaments, and Dahmen’s wife usually drives if they are running places together. But when he’s solo and faced with a big parking lot with lots of options, it takes some time for him to find a spot for his 2017 Ford Explorer.

“I let the car choose where it wants to park,” Dahmen said. “Sometimes you just have to let the car go and sometimes it takes a little bit longer to find the spot it fits in. I’ve had the parking yips for a while. I’m a solid driver. My wife calls me a grandpa driver. I’m not ripping 80 around the 101 or going 55 on Scottsdale Road, but I get into these parking lots and I just can’t pull the trigger on a spot.

“And it’s not like I can’t fit the car in there, I’m a confident driver,” he continued. “But sometimes there is a car seat, you got to have room for those, and you try to get the kids in the backseat and then you gotta find the passenger seat with wider room than the other side, and it just takes a little longer.”

You can listen to Dahmen’s complete Subpar appearance here, or watch the video below.

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The post How a 3 a.m. research session fueled Joel Dahmen’s career-saving day appeared first on Golf.

The post How a 3 a.m. research session fueled Joel Dahmen’s career-saving day appeared first on Golf.

It arrived, naturally, at 3 a.m. on the day before (the day of, technically) a career-deciding round. Not quite “cold sweats,” but you get the idea.

But the most impressive piece is what happened after Dahmen’s “freakout”: The greatest golf comeback of his professional life.

Perhaps you’ve already heard the story of Dahmen’s rally at the RSM Classic last month, in which a six-under Sunday 64 clinched his PGA Tour status for 2025 on the number. Dahmen’s round that day — four birdies, an eagle, no bogeys — was rightfully celebrated, including the testy six-footer on the 72nd hole that fell into the bottom of the cup, pushing him inside the all-important top-125 on the PGA Tour and granting him full status for the following season.

But what you didn’t know about that round — the questionable research session two nights before that fueled it — makes it all the more impressive.

Dahmen told the story on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, which he says begins with an opening round 2-over at the RSM, and the knowledge going to bed on Thursday night that his PGA Tour career might officially be in jeopardy.

“So I went to bed, I probably fell asleep around 10, and I woke up at 2 or 3 a.m., and, like, I wouldn’t say like, night sweats, but the freakout of all freakouts,” he said. “I wasn’t going back to sleep at that point. There was no chance.”

With sleep not in his future, Dahmen decided to do something to combat his terror: He pulled up the PGA Tour’s player website and started scrolling. Before long, he’d figured out what he needed to shoot over the final three days at the RSM in order to keep his PGA Tour card.

“First time in my career, I went on to Tour Links, I clicked on synthetic stuff, and I started scrolling around figuring out how many points I needed and what I needed to pass,” Dahmen says. “I’m like, I probably need [six under]. Five would be close. Seven is definitely a lock. So I knew going out that morning that I needed birdies.”

Dahmen rallied that day to make the cut. But he was just one under par for the tournament when he awoke on Sunday morning, which meant he needed at least five birdies during his final round to feel good about his Tour future. As Subpar host Drew Stoltz pointed out, Dahmen’s decision to arm himself with concrete expectations ran counter to just about every piece of sports psychology advice.

“It was like, I knew what I needed to do,” Dahmen said.

And then, with his career on the line on Sunday afternoon, that’s precisely what Dahmen did, shooting the round of his life to maintain his PGA Tour life.

“The last thing I did was give a fist pound to [swing coach Rob Rashell]. I go, let’s go make birdies. And he goes, just be you,” Dahmen said with a laugh. “I was like, Well, me this year is 124. Let’s tap into Joel has had a nice career and is successful. So I was way more calm on Sunday. I was like, Man, if I just play good golf, I know I can shoot six under out here. And fortunately, I did.”

To hear the rest of Dahmen’s interview with the Subpar gang, including his hopes for life on the PGA Tour in 2025, you can check out the link below.

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The post Michael Jordan had the ultimate flex at Las Vegas’ most expensive course appeared first on Golf.

The post Michael Jordan had the ultimate flex at Las Vegas’ most expensive course appeared first on Golf.

Celebrities

Knost’s story is set at a recent Shadow Creek member-guest event, where Knost witnessed a friend, whose name he doesn’t disclose, try to “flex” on Jordan, only to draw some return fire from the Chicago Bulls legend.
 
“We get paired with MJ and Ben Herman… and this guy, you know he’s acting all cock-in-the-walk and all this, marks his ball with a $25,000 chip,” Knost begins.
 
Jordan was quick to notice the anonymous friend’s bold move, so he decided to one-up him with his own prize from a local casino.
 
“MJ sees it and throws a little $100,000 chip behind his ball, and he goes, ‘Cute whatever your name is.'”
 
Unable to resist, Knost then decided to jump into the fray with his own joke for Jordan, saying, “M, if you keep dropping them $100,000 chips behind your ball I’m going to take one.”
 
It didn’t take long for Jordan’s comeback to arrive.
 
“That’s fine fat boy,” Jordan told Knost. “I’ve got 17 more of them in the room.”
 
Check out the video above to watch Knost tell his tale along with some other great anecdotes about Jordan. You can listen to the entire episode here, or watch it on YouTube here.

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The post How much money is thrown around at Shadow Creek? Here’s 1 example appeared first on Golf.

The post How much money is thrown around at Shadow Creek? Here’s 1 example appeared first on Golf.

Especially when the typical clientele at Shadow Creek are gamblers.

On this week’s GOLF Subpar, longtime Shadow Creek General Manager Monte Montgomery retold one of his favorite stories of massive wagers at the course and it centered on two historic pro gamblers.

“It’s probably noon and I hear this hot rod coming down our main road and I’m like, I wonder who this might be, the boss or somebody comes around this gray exotic car,” Montgomery started telling co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “And the guy pulls in and the doors pop up like a Lambo and whatever and Phil [Ivey] pops out.”

Ivey told him he and fellow professional poker player Erick Lindgren had taken up golf and were learning how to play. Given their professional exploits, that of course meant wagers were had on the course

But Montgomery was still astonished at the sight of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, even at a place like Shadow Creek where the typical ride to the course is an exotic sports car.

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“I’m like, when the hell did you get that?” Montgomery asked him.

“And he goes, ‘I just went down and bought it this morning.’

“I said, ‘how much something like that cost?’

“He goes, ‘I had just spent like 750[-thousand].’ He goes, ‘But it didn’t cost me anything.’ He goes, ‘I beat Lingren last night for…’ Well, I don’t even want to get into that.”

Let’s just assume it was for more money than the car cost him.

“We’re playing again today and I just wanted to come out and show him what I bought with his money,” Ivey explained.

The message was probably received.

Before Ivey headed off for his round, he tossed the keys to Montgomery’s 11-year-old son Taylor, who was standing next to him.

“I’m like, ‘He’s not driving that thing.’ I said, ‘Do you care if I take it a for a spin?'” Montgomery asked.

“He goes, ‘Do whatever you want, Monte.’”

Not a bad perk of the job. Montgomery said he took the car down a side street next to the golf course and hit 150 mph before returning the car to the parking lot without a scratch on it, as if nothing had happened.

You can listen to the entire interview with Montgomery here, or watch it on YouTube below.

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The post This golf course costs $1,250 to play. Here’s how to book a tee time appeared first on Golf.

The post This golf course costs $1,250 to play. Here’s how to book a tee time appeared first on Golf.

“It’s real easy,” he said, adding, “I mean, it’s very difficult to get a tee time; it’s like going to any nice golf course in the country.”

What Montgomery, the guest on this week’s GOLF Subpar podcast, meant was Shadow Creek is a resort course, so it is technically easy to get a tee time there. But there are a few stipulations. Oh, and it’s going to cost you a good chunk of change.

“We got our golf reservations,” he continued, “so you can get online and find those numbers, or if you are a gambler you can go down and get a host at the casino. But weekends are reserved for comped players only, so you have to have a host. They are really the only ones that can make a reservation for you, if you are a comp player, which means you got to have a credit line to gamble. Some Sundays we open up, but Monday through Thursday you can basically call and if you stay at one of the MGM properties, minus New York-New York, Excalibur and Luxor, [you can get a time].”

Shadow Creek opened in 1989, and the Tom Fazio design cost around $60 million to build. MGM Resorts International took over ownership in 2000 and made the luxe course available for guests of designated MGM properties. The price has skyrocketed over the years. It was originally $500, but it’s now more than double that, and at $1,250 a round, it’s the most expensive public tee time in the United States.

The course ranked 14th on GOLF’s latest list of the Top 100 Courses You Can Play, and with your tee time comes a private limo ride to the golf course, caddie and locker.

Can’t make it there yourself? You’ll get a good view of it on TV later this month, when Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler take on Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau in the latest made-for-TV TNT Match on Dec. 17, which will be about six years after Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson squared off there in the first playing of the series.

You can listen to the entire interview with Montgomery here, or watch it on YouTube below.

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The post How a country-music star walked on to the Texas golf team appeared first on Golf.

The post How a country-music star walked on to the Texas golf team appeared first on Golf.

But Birge’s talents aren’t limited to the musical variety. In fact, the Austin, Texas native is also one heck of a golfer.

Back before Birge was ever pursuing a career in music, he was attending his hometown college at the University of Texas. While he was studying there, the golf team staged a walk-on tournament as a sort of preliminary tryout for a spot on the powerhouse golf team.

“Usually it was a ceremonial thing,” Birge said on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar. “I was lucky enough to win that. And that didn’t earn you a spot, that just earned you a chance to go play in front of coach.”

Not long after, UT coach John Fields invited Birge out to the team’s home course to play a round.

“I’m about as nervous as I’ve ever been on a golf course,” Birge said. “[But] I caught a wind, played some good golf in front of coach and he gave me a bag, a locker and a spot on the team, which to this day I’m forever grateful for.”

As a freshman, Birge got to play alongside future pros such as Jhonattan Vegas, and it was an eye-opening experience.

“I remember in high school thinking that I was a bomber,” Birge said. “I remember the first qualifier playing with Jhonattan Vegas, I hit a drive, a high draw down the middle about 300 yards. He hits a 3-wood past me and then chipped and putted better than me also. I was like, ‘Man, I think I might be in trouble.'”

You can check out Birge’s entire interview below.

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The post Worst tempers on LIV Golf? One pro answers appeared first on Golf.

The post Worst tempers on LIV Golf? One pro answers appeared first on Golf.

Hatton made headlines last year when, playing a difficult U.S. Open setup, he quipped, “I just lose my head every week; [other players] can kind of experience what it’s like in my head for a week [at U.S. Opens.]”

All four of those aforementioned pros play on LIV Golf, which is also where 22-year-old David Puig plays. The former Arizona State Sun Devil was the guest on this week’s Subpar podcast and dished on what it’s like playing with some of those guys. As co-host Drew Stoltz put it: There are some “iconic tempers” on LIV Golf.

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The group joked that Puig would be on that list, too, but Puig was also asked to list his top-three worst tempers on LIV.

“I mean, Henrik Stenson’s got to be up there,” Puig said. “I love the guy man; he’s the best. He’s got to be the first one.”

Puig told a story of a round when he was paired with Stenson on the Asian tour, and Stenson pulled a 7-iron into the water and promptly tomahawked his club.

“And there’s this microphone probably like 20 yards away,” he said, “and it hits the microphone and the microphone explodes and his club breaks at the same time.”

Puig also mentioned Garcia as a candidate for the all-temper team, but added that Garcia doesn’t seem to get quite as mad these days as he used to.

Of course, there’s also Hatton.

“He gets pretty dicey, but I can’t stop laughing when he says all that,” Puig said. “You are standing next to him and he’s saying all these things and I’m like, ‘I f—ing love this man.”

Co-host Colt Knost added a story about a recent round in which Hatton joined him on the CBS broadcast after a round, and Hatton was asked to call the next shot on live TV. It didn’t go well, and the next day Knost was assigned as the on-course reporter for Hatton’s group. On one hole, Hatton left an eagle putt well short. He tapped in and then said to Knost, “That putt was almost as bad as my f—ing commentary yesterday.”

You can listen to the entire Subpar podcast with Puig here, or watch the YouTube video below.

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The post Why this college star decided to sign with LIV Golf appeared first on Golf.

The post Why this college star decided to sign with LIV Golf appeared first on Golf.

Go the traditional route and try to earn his way onto the PGA Tour, or take a contract with LIV Golf, where he could make money right away.

Puig shocked the golf world when he left Arizona State early in his senior year, turned pro and joined LIV Golf in September 2022. The then-20-year-old was the first amateur golfer to go straight from college golf to the new Saudi-backed PGA Tour-rival.

On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, Puig went over the circumstances of the decision with co-hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. Puig said at first he had reservations about making a league just because he was uncertain where things were going to go with the upstart league.

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“But I talked with my parents and with my team, and we just thought that making that decision was the best for us,” he said. “But there was just some reactions from people like, who is this guy or we’re never gonna know him or this guy sucks, LIV sucks, all that through social media. But hopefully, you know, it obviously got better, but hopefully it keeps getting better in the future.”

After the past few years, Puig said he has felt tensions soften a bit, especially with the play of some of the leagues stars like Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, who won majors in 2023 and 2024.

“So I don’t know if it’s gonna get better or not, but at least the fans, I think they’re just starting to realize that we’re just not bad people or anything like that,” he said. “We’re just playing somewhere else.”

Because Puig went straight to LIV Golf, the PGA Tour immediately suspended him and he has yet to ever tee it up in a PGA Tour event, except for four major appearances the last two seasons. But that doesn’t mean he has any regrets.

“I love it, man. They do an awesome job,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been pretty much everywhere in the world. They treat us very, very well. The courses are great. People are great. The players are, you know, if you’re looking like history of the players, I mean, there’s a lot of players that are unbelievable golfers. So for me, just playing with them, alongside them and just kind of learning from them, it’s been unbelievable.”

For more from Puig, including who the top tempers on LIV Golf are, watch the full episode below.

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The post This legendary course stands out for this NFL Pro Bowler appeared first on Golf.

The post This legendary course stands out for this NFL Pro Bowler appeared first on Golf.

NFL Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson is no exception.

Peterson was the guest on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar and gave a rundown to hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz of all the top tracks he’s played all over the world.

“Man, I played St. Andrews; the Old Course, played Kingsbarnes, played Cypress, played all the Pebbles,” Peterson said. “Where else have I played? Played the Melbournes [East and West], New South Wales.”

But Peterson had a clear favorite among those courses, which dot GOLF’s list of Top 100 Courses in the World.

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“My favorite man was the Old Course, just because the history that it has,” he said. “I think I shot 77 there, and we had it at this prime condition. The wind was like 25 miles per hour. The rough was higher than — taller than me. It was in prime condition, and that was a beautiful, beautiful trip because we flew over — was actually over in Monaco for the Formula One.

“Just being, like I said, the history that that course has, had to have pictures of me on the bridge, walking down 18, just being in that little domain was just unbelievable.”

Peterson is not alone as some of the most famous photos in golf were taken on the Old Course’s Swlican Bridge across the 18th fairway. From Tiger Woods to buddies trips alike.

And that’s also not to suggest any of the other courses on his list were slouches. Cypress Point is the No. 2 course on GOLF’s recently-released list of Top 100 Courses in the U.S., while Pebble Beach is No. 9. Meanwhile Royal Melbourne’s East and West courses are No. 92 and No. 7 on GOLF’s Top 100 World list.

For more from Peterson, including his dream round at Augusta National and his money games with former Arizona Cardinals teammate Larry Fitzgerald, you can listen to the complete interview here or watch it on YouTube below.

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