Well Played
PGA Tour caddie pays Ric Flair to give his struggling boss hilarious pep talk
It's been an odd 2023 for Joel Dahmen thus far. The PGA Tour pro is more popular than ever—in large part to Netflix's "Full Swing"—but he's slumping pretty hard on the course—in large part because of a video he did with our boss, Sam Weinman. Hey, it was a fun video, but the timing of him spending an entire round watching Sam play to when Joel's own game fell off just can't be a coincidence. Sorry, Sam. And sorry, Joel, for putting you through that long day.
But regardless of why Dahmen finds himself struggling—although, again, we're pretty sure Sam's to blame—he finds himself struggling. In 12 individual starts so far in 2023, Dahmen's best finish is a T-41 with five missed cuts. He finished T-11 at the Zurich Classic, but that was with the not-struggling Denny McCarthy as his partner. (Side note: Denny, if you ever get asked to do a video with Sam, run.)
Anyway, the slump has gotten to the point where Joel's caddie and best bud Geno Bonnalie called in a big gun on Friday: Ric Flair. That's right, the Nature Boy himself sent Joel a motivational video to help get him back on track. And if you're thinking, Wow, Joel Dahmen really is popular these days!, well, we should mention that this was done through the celebrity video message website Cameo. So Ric was paid to do this. Paid $500, in fact. Not a cheap (gag) gift! But Geno got his money's worth with three giant "WOO!"s and some, um, inspiring words from the WWE star. Check it out:
This might be the most brilliant caddie move we've ever seen. Absolutely love the part when Ric says, "Your golf game has gone to hell!" and then points out that Joel has multiple last-place finishes. "C'mon, man. You're better than that. I heard you can't putt worth a damn. C'mon, brother. You've got friends who are concerned about your game." Great stuff. A little later, Ric says, "You've got to break 70, buddy. Actually 80. I heard you're having a tough time breaking 90." Dagger!
But again, this was all done out of love. And it already seems to be working.
Woo! Just fantastic off-the-course caddying by Geno. That's going to turn out to be the best $500 he ever spent.