Winner's Bag
The clubs Joel Dahmen used to win the 2021 Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Joel Dahmen earned his first PGA Tour victory—defeating Rafael Campos (right) and Sam Ryder by one stroke.
Kevin C. Cox
Joel Dahmen's crucial up-and-down par at the difficult par-3 17th—while his playing competitor Rafael Campos failed to do the same—proved to be the difference in a one-shot win for Dahmen over Campos and Sam Ryder at the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. An excruciatingly close birdie try for Campos—who started his fist-pump celebration prematurely—narrowly missed, which allowed Dahmen to avoid a playoff.
The win was Dahmen’s first in 111 starts on the PGA Tour and after four birdies on the opening nine, the blustery conditions caught up with Dahmen on the back, where two bogeys dropped him into a tie for the lead with Campos. Still, Dahmen persevered by excelling in two areas of the game he is normally not overly proficient in—short game and putting.
Although a respectable T-15 in greens in regulation, Dahmen still missed 23 greens. He managed to get up and down on 18 of those occasions, including the save at 17, where he used his PXG 0311 T Sugar Daddy 60-degree wedge for a pitch that nearly went in. Dahmen came into the week ranked T-87 in scrambling—at a little more than 59 percent conversion rate—but ranked T-4 for the week in the Dominican Republic.
Dahmen also ranked T-4 for the week in putts per green in regulation, enough for a tournament-high 19 birdies. The solid work on the greens was valuable considering Dahmen came into the week ranked 172nd in strokes gained/putting with his Scotty Cameron by Titleist Roundback prototype putter.
“It’s really hard to win a golf tournament,” said an emotional Dahmen afterward. That’s true, but he finally won one.
What Joel Dahmen had in the bag at the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST, 10.5 degrees
3-wood: Ping G425 Max, 14.5 degrees
Hybrid: Ping Anser, 20 degrees
Irons (4-PW): PXG 0311 T Gen 2
Wedges: PXG 0311 T Sugar Daddy (50, 56, 60 degrees)
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