FedExCup Fall update: Joel Dahmen keeps PGA TOUR card with emotional 6-under 64 in season’s final round

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Joel Dahmen needed a final-round 65 at The RSM Classic at worst to keep his job. He had yet to achieve that score in the FedExCup Fall, and although his scenario wasn’t 100% crystallized Saturday evening, he knew the situation demanded one of the rounds of his life.

Dahmen, 37, is confident in his abilities, but he knew the long odds of summoning greatness amidst the greatest pressure. Hence Saturday evening had the vibe of a “funeral.” He picked up his son from TOUR daycare after a frustrating third-round 70 at Sea Island Golf Club, and his mind wandered to what could be lost. He has developed close friendships in his eight years on TOUR – with the likes of Mark Hubbard and J.T. Poston, who followed Dahmen’s pursuit closely Sunday afternoon on the FedExCup Fall’s final day, which also marked the final day of the TOUR’s top-125 exempt era, a run that lasted 41 years.

Everything coalesced in Dahmen’s mind Saturday evening and into Sunday morning. Then Dahmen, wife Lona, son Riggs and caddie Geno Bonnalie had an impromptu dance party shortly before the final round, to the tune of something called the “Broccoli Dance.” Then Dahmen danced to perhaps the round of his life.

Dahmen holed out from 110 yards for eagle at his fourth hole Sunday, the par-4 13th at Sea Island Golf Club’s Seaside Course, and he never let up. Needing 65 or better, Dahmen carded a 6-under 64 that vaulted him 26 spots on the leaderboard, from T61 to T35. Crucially, he maintained his position at No. 124 on the FedExCup Fall standings, after he had projected No. 128 going into Sunday.

Dahmen did it. He kept his job.

A day after Dahmen and longtime caddie Bonnalie allowed thoughts of a return to the Korn Ferry Tour, on which Dahmen earned his first TOUR card in 2016, they summoned a performance that bordered on life’s rarest gift of complete satisfaction. It’s a feeling that’s hard to find, but it’s one to savor and bottle forever.

“That’s probably the most alive I’ve felt on the golf course,” Dahmen said Sunday. “Especially the last nine holes, for sure … because I care. I think I was portrayed maybe in a TV show where I didn’t care as much as people think, or I didn’t put in the time or the effort. But I have amazing people around me, my wife, my caddie Geno, my coaches, my friends; they’re just a special group of people who care about me. I really wanted to do it for them, and I wanted to keep this ride going.

“And I’m glad I get another year at it.”

Beginning next season, it will be harder than ever to maintain full status on the PGA TOUR. Changes announced last week include the reduction of fully exempt status from top-125 to top-100 on the final FedExCup Fall standings, in addition to the reduction of 10 cards via the season-long Korn Ferry Tour Points List (from 30 to 20). For conditional members, earning full status will be higher than ever. Graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour will yield the same difficulty.

Hence The RSM Classic’s inherent pressure reached new heights this week, with players around the bubble scratching and clawing for any marginal advantage to keep their job and avoid an uncertain fate in 2025 – which likely will include Korn Ferry Tour starts for players in the 126-150 conditional category.

Sweden’s Henrik Norlander made birdie on the 72nd hole for a T17 finish that allowed him to vault six spots on the FedExCup Fall, from No. 126 to No. 120, and regain exempt status after playing the 2024 season from the conditional category (he finished 2023 at No. 126 on the FedExCup Fall, on the bubble’s wrong side by a single position). Norlander, 37, is a veteran of 299 starts between the PGA TOUR and Korn Ferry Tour, and normally a T17 would mark a solid but nondescript week. Yet he described his approach and putt on Sunday’s final hole at Sea Island as two shots that he will “remember forever.” That’s the magnitude of the FedExCup Fall finale, sharpened through finality.

Daniel Berger shared second place at The RSM Classic, vaulting 27 spots from No. 127 to No. 100 on the FedExCup Fall and retaining exempt status for 2025. Berger and Norlander were the only two players to move inside the top 125 at the season finale, knocking out Zac Blair and Wesley Bryan, both of whom missed the cut at Sea Island – Blair fell from No. 123 to No. 126, with Bryan falling from No. 125 to No. 128.

Dahmen played The RSM Classic’s first two rounds alongside Blair and Bryan in a threesome that doubled as a bubble bonanza (Nos. 123-125 entering the week). Late into Friday’s second round, he was on the verge of joining them on the cut line’s wrong side. But the Washington native dug deep with birdies on Nos. 14 and 16 Friday at the Seaside Course, and he drained a 6-footer for par at the closing hole to finish squarely on the cut line at 1-under. It meant he had a chance on the weekend, even after a double bogey on his 16th hole Saturday (Seaside’s par-5 seventh) meant his back was firmly against the wall into the final day of the TOUR’s 41-year, top-125 exempt era.

Dahmen and his wife Lona had a heart-to-heart conversation Saturday evening, in which Dahmen apologized for putting her through this much stress. Lona wasn’t having it.

“She reminded me last night, like, ‘This is what I signed up for,’” Dahmen said Sunday. “I'm like, ‘No, you signed up for like a really crappy mini-tour player at the time who was broke. You did not sign up for this.’

“Yeah, she's like, ‘We’re going to be OK. We have a great family; we love each other’ … I thought of the tears of sadness and how it can kind of change our life going forward and I've thought about it, the other side. So I'm very happy it was tears of joy.”

“Seeing it all pay off, you just feel it a little more,” Lona added. “We’ve had Netflix and all these other things, and they weigh on you in different ways, and it’s different adjustments throughout life. And we’ve had family illnesses and all that stuff, so to have a moment when you feel like … he’s worked really hard … a moment of joy, it means a lot.

“I was telling Joel’s coach earlier, I was like, ‘Well, nothing like the game of golf to just make you feel alive at all moments, whether it’s good or bad.’”

It’s all too real, and sometimes it’s just wonderful.

MOVING IN

Daniel Berger (from No. 127 to No. 100): A four-time PGA TOUR winner, Berger summoned a season-best performance when he needed it most, carding rounds of 71-66-63-67 at Sea Island for a runner-up finish, just one back of winner Maverick McNealy, to ascend 27 spots on the FedExCup Fall. Berger returned to action in January after a 19-month hiatus due to a back injury; he gave himself two years to work back to full strength, and his splendid week at Sea Island suggests he might be ahead of schedule.

Henrik Norlander (from No. 126 to No. 100): Norlander made the cut on the number with a 12-foot birdie on his final hole Friday, preserving his hopes of moving inside the top 125, and he maximized his weekend opportunity with rounds of 63-68 for a gutsy T17 finish, his ninth top-25 finish of the season and enough to regain exempt TOUR status.

MOVING OUT

Zac Blair (from No. 123 to No. 126): Blair missed the cut with scores of 72-71 at The RSM Classic, two strokes outside the number, and jockeyed between projected Nos. 125 and 126 for much of Sunday before ultimately settling on the bubble’s wrong side.

Wesley Bryan (from No. 125 to No. 128): The popular YouTube creator found a groove throughout the FedExCup Fall with four top-25 finishes in a five-event span, and it was nearly enough to finish inside the top 125 for the first time since his rookie year of 2017. But after a 2-under opening round at The RSM Classic, he faded to a second-round, 3-over 73 at the Seaside Course to miss the cut by two shots, and it wasn’t enough to preserve his tenuous spot on the bubble.

BUBBLE BOY

After missing the cut at The RSM Classic, Sam Ryder sweated out a nervy weekend from afar before hanging onto the final fully exempt card at No. 125. Ryder finished T5 at last week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship to ascend from No. 127 to No. 122 on the FedExCup Fall, but rounds of 72-76 at Sea Island left him seven shots off the cut line and in a helpless position across the final two rounds. Ryder was projected No. 126 into Sunday but was the beneficiary of late stumbles by Michael Thorbjornsen and Hayden Springer, which allowed him to also withstand Dahmen’s Sunday surge. Ryder finished less than three points ahead of Blair for the final exempt card.

NOTABLES

PGA TOUR rookie Hayden Springer entered the week at No. 128 on the FedExCup Fall and was projected No. 122 after a third-round 63 that moved him to T12 on the leaderboard. Yet Springer stalled in a final-round 70 that dropped him 18 spots into an eventual T30, and he finished the week at No. 127 on the FedExCup Fall. With one more birdie, he would have finished No. 125. “I think there's more for me,” Springer said afterward. “I know that I can … perform better and do it for a long time. I'm proud of myself and I'm proud of the fight, but I think that there's more in there.” … Michael Thorbjornsen shared third place into Sunday and was projected to move from No. 138 to No. 120 on the FedExCup Fall; he carded a final-round 69 to fall into eighth place, and he finished No. 129 on the final FedExCup Fall standings. It’s not a crucial blow for the Stanford alum, though, as he’s fully exempt in 2025 as No. 1 on the 2024 PGA TOUR University Ranking … Nos. 126-150 on the final FedExCup Fall standings retained conditional TOUR status for 2025, if not otherwise exempt. Joseph Bramlett finished T35 at The RSM Classic, moving from No. 147 to No. 146 on the FedExCup Fall and securing conditional status at minimum … Players who finished outside the top 125 on the FedExCup Fall can regain or improve TOUR status via PGA TOUR Q-School presented by Korn Ferry. The top five finishers and ties at Q-School’s Final Stage, contested Dec. 12-15 at TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club, will earn 2025 PGA TOUR membership.