Joel Dahmen shoots 68 despite triple-bogey at 14
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Written by Staff
Joel Dahmen took 68 strokes to complete his first round at the Wyndham Championship.
Three of them came from the same spot. It resulted in a triple-bogey on the par-4 14th, Dahmen’s fifth hole of the day. He bounced back with five birdies and no bogeys the remainder of the way, however.
Entering this week, there had been just 11 rounds this season in which a player shot 68 or lower with a triple-bogey or worse (Patton Kizzire and Chris Kirk each had two apiece).
So, what happened on 14?
His caddie, Geno Bonnalie, explained the situation on Twitter, writing, “Ball was sitting … perfectly on top of a tuft of Bermuda. Took a practice swing a foot from the ball, and the ball fell to the bottom. Had to replace it (1 stroke [penalty]). Then went right underneath it the 2nd time and it didn’t move. 3 strokes from the same spot. Golf is hard.”
In another tweet, Bonnalie said they were “not certain he caused it to move, but not certain he didn’t either.” Dahmen penalized himself because he could not be certain that his actions did not cause the ball to move.
He was penalized one stroke under Rule 9.4, “Ball Lifted or Moved by Player,” which states that a player is penalized one stroke and must replace his ball if he causes it to move.
Dahmen, who earned his first PGA TOUR victory at this year’s Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship, is 76th in the FedExCup standings.
Statistically speaking, Dahmen lost -1.4 strokes around the green on that one hole. This is how ShotLink described the triple-bogey:
Shot 1: 316 yards to right fairway, 195 yards to hole
Shot 2: 185 yards to right rough, 60 ft. 3 in. to hole
Shot 3: Penalty
Shot 4: 19 in. to right rough, 58 ft. 10 in. to hole
Shot 5: 89 ft. 1 in. to green, 30 ft. 2 in. to hole
Shot 6: putt 28 ft. 5 in., 23 in. to hole
Shot 7: in the hole