PGA Tour star severely punished after breaking little-known golden rule

PGA Tour star Joel Dahmen was slapped with a drastic penalty after he unknowingly broke an obscure rule while competing at the Shriners Children’s Open

PGA Tour ace Joel Dahmen was hit with a four-shot penalty after possessing 15 clubs in his bag – one more than the maximum amount allowed.

The 36-year-old has been competing in the Shriners Children’s Open this week, but his chances of keeping his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season suffered a big blow after he was handed a severe punishment for his untimely gaffe.

Coming into the tournament at No. 124 in the FedEx Cup Fall rankings, where the top 125 at the end of the season keep full status for 2025, Dahmen discovered an extra 4-iron in his golf bag, which left him liable for a four-shot penalty.

Because he was unaware of the extra club for two holes, he was handed the maximum penalty of the shot as per the rulebook of the United States Golf Association (USGA).

It states: “Two Penalty Strokes, Maximum of Four Strokes: You get the general penalty (two penalty strokes) for each hole where a breach happened, with a maximum of four penalty strokes in the round (adding two penalty strokes at each of the first two holes where a breach happened).”

Dahmen’s 72 was quickly turned into a 5-over 76, leaving him in dire straits to make the cut on Friday. He later revealed that the error was the first of his career.

Never happened to me before,” said Dahmen, who stated that like most players, he travels with 15 or 16 clubs. “I played Tuesday and Wednesday out here. We didn’t see it in there. It was an extra 4-iron, so I had two 4-irons in the bag.”

Dahmen – who earned his sole PGA Tour win at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship in 2021 – said that he noticed his mistake on the fourth tee and deduced it was an extra club when spotting the 4-iron was in a different spot.

“You just want to get so mad and you want to get mad at everything,” he added. “At the same time, just got to keep playing golf, and I didn’t do a great job of that afterwards.”

There are four events on the FedEx Cup Fall calendar remaining after this week’s Shriners Children’s Open, leaving Dahmen with work to do to retain his Tour card.