Corales Puntacana Championship
Defending champ Joel Dahmen withdraws before second round at Puntacana
Joel Dahmen shot an opening-round 71 Thursday at Corales Puntacana Championship. The tournament's defending champion withdrew from the event before starting the second round Friday due to illness.
Mike Ehrmann
Defending champion Joel Dahmen withdrew from the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic on Friday prior to starting his second round. PGA Tour Communications cited illness as the reason.
Dahmen shot an opening-round 71 at Puntacana Resort & Club on Thursday, making pars on his last 11 holes to leave himself T-32, five shots off the Day 1 lead, held by Ben Martin.
A year ago at Puntacana, Dahmen shot a final-round 70 to win his first PGA Tour title by one shot over Rafael Campos.
The victory was an emotional one for the native of Washington, who had been on the PGA Tour for four-plus seasons before finally claiming the win. Earlier this week, Dahmen and his caddie Geno Bonnalie reflected on the victory in this PGA Tour video:
In 13 starts during the 2021-22 PGA Tour season, Dahmen had two top-10 finishes and missed just two cuts. He was 57th in the FedEx Cup standings and No. 100 in the World Ranking entering this week's tournament.