Geno Bonnalie takes the mic in PGA TOUR LIVE debut

Geno Bonnalie is going to walk The Country Club of Jackson twice on Friday.

Once holding a bag, the other holding a microphone.

Bonnalie – the affable caddie to Joel Dahmen – is set to make his PGA TOUR LIVE debut in the second round of the Sanderson Farms Championship. He’ll be commentating on the featured group of Cameron Champ, Scott Stallings and defending champion Mackenzie Hughes.

Dahmen will have completed his round in the morning and Bonnalie will then switch jobs. On one condition.

“If Joel shoots 58 that morning I’m going to call in sick for the afternoon shift,” Bonnalie says with a laugh.

Bonnalie and Dahmen’s story has been long documented and was a key part of one of the episodes of the first season of ‘Full Swing’ on Netflix. A heartfelt letter written by Bonnalie to Dahmen stating why he wanted to work for his friend was one of the first season’s most emotional moments.

Bonnalie admits it’s “still kind of crazy” how often he’ll get recognized from that show. He wears that same PXG hat pretty much everywhere, he says, and about half the time he’ll be asked if he’s “Joel Dahmen’s caddie,” and the other half the time it’s “Are you Geno?”

“It happens about once a flight,” Bonnalie says, smiling, “so it’s fairly regularly.”

Bonnalie is quick to say he has no interest in making broadcasting a full-time career. For now, Friday will be a one-off. But he’s confident in what he’s going to bring to the telecast.

“It’s not like I used to be a caddie. I still am a caddy,” Bonnalie says. “I think that’s good, and it could be a thing going forward where the viewers will like that. And I could bring some insights they wouldn’t normally get.”

The broadcasting opportunity came together pretty fast – Bonnalie worked with an agency who determined which week would be best for him through the FedExCup Fall – but he was on PGA TOUR LIVE’s radar since the Valspar Championship.

Early that week Dahmen was in a featured group with Justin Thomas and they were walking alongside TOUR winner and now broadcaster John Rollins. After Dahmen made a double bogey, Bonnalie looked at Rollins and joked about switching jobs for a few holes.

Turns out, Rollins dialed into the production truck and asked if Bonnalie was serious and if he wanted to try later that day. He ended up going out for about an hour alongside Rollins to call some golf and talk through some shots.

“I’m one of those guys that just says, ‘yes’ to everything because you get to experience a lot of stuff that way,” Bonnalie says. “Truthfully I wasn’t super excited about doing it but if I didn’t do it, I may have never had another opportunity.

“I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I said, ‘(screw) it, let’s do it.’”

The debut went well and the agency who arranged this week’s PGA TOUR LIVE appearance quickly reached out to kickstart a relationship with Bonnalie.

As a caddie, Bonnalie says he knows “when to shut up” and when to talk. Plus, he says, his golf IQ is solid. He lacks formal TV experience, of course, but had a brief production meeting to learn how the mic pack works and he even, with a laugh, says he went to buy a notebook on Wednesday. Bonnalie hopes that since he’s so close to each of the players in the group he may be able to convince them to do a walk-and-talk. How it will all go remains to-be-determined. But at least, he says, the second walk around The Country Club of Jackson on Friday is going to be way better not carrying a bag.

Dahmen tees off at 8:33 a.m. ET on Friday, while Hughes, Champ and Stallings go at 1:50 p.m.

And Bonnalie will be ready for both.

“If I only do it on Friday and that’s it forever, then that’s OK with me,” Bonnalie says. “But I talk a lot anyway, so it might be a good fit.”