When Arnold Palmer confronted his last spherical as a Masters competitor in 2004, he delivered one in all golf’s extra poignant strains.
“I knew it was time,” Palmer stated. “However I by no means needed it to finish.”
On Thursday morning on the Wyndham Championship, Joel Dahmen discovered himself sharing his personal model of Palmer’s phrases as he spoke for the primary time about his separation from longtime caddie and greatest buddy, Geno Bonnalie.
Two weeks in the past, because the golf world turned to the Open Championship, Dahmen introduced that he and Bonnalie had parted methods. This has been the yr of the player-caddie cut up, with a number of different high-profile pairs going their separate methods, however this partnership was among the many sport’s most enduring and maybe most beloved. Neither Dahmen nor Bonnalie introduced the rationale for the cut up, although as with most player-caddie breakups, there was little clarification wanted. Golf is a sport performed below the auspices of eat-what-you-kill, and each caddie and participant had been getting into the canine days of a lean yr.
Nonetheless, the information from Dahmen and Bonnalie — greatest buddies from childhood, right-hand-men by thick and skinny — despatched shockwaves by the game. In a yr outlined by looper modifications (Max Homa and his caddie/greatest buddy Joe Greiner, Collin Morikawa and his longtime looper JJ Jakovac, Matt Fitzpatrick with Billy Foster, Morikawa once more with Greiner), and in a sport outlined by its many lengthy hours alone on the highway, Dahmen and Bonnalie’s was probably the most placing departure.
As Dahmen spoke from the rostrum after the low spherical of his yr, a Thursday 61 on the Wyndham that pushed him into the opening-round lead, not even the euphoria of a nine-under begin in a do-or-die PGA Tour occasion was sufficient to clean away the emotion he nonetheless felt concerning the cut up.
“Man, I like Geno,” Dahmen stated post-round. “We nonetheless textual content nearly day by day. He’s doing nicely. Yeah, I imply, I miss him however generally the toughest — you must do one thing laborious to —”
He paused.
“Look, it wasn’t a straightforward choice,” Dahmen stated. “I received’t say I’m not joyful about it nevertheless it’s laborious. He’s my greatest buddy, he’s nonetheless my greatest buddy.”
As Dahmen mirrored upon the caddie change within the aftermath of his greatest spherical of the yr, he was fast to dismiss the suggestion that Bonnalie’s looping had been not directly answerable for his poor play.
“I needed to change one thing with me,” Dahmen stated. “It was extra about me. It was my mentality, it was what I used to be doing and I have to take possession of what I used to be doing. I used to be not doing a superb job of that. So a manner for me to do it is so simple as simply taking part in golf by myself slightly bit.”
Dahmen has at all times been a streaky participant, and in an odd twist, the transfer from Bonnalie does appear to have sparked one thing in his sport. He completed T17 in his first begin with out Bonnalie on the Barracuda Championship, and adopted that up with a T39 finally week’s 3M Open. He enters Friday on the Wyndham Championship with a stunning 18-hole lead, and needing a win or runner-up end to vault a shock bid into the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
“I imply, I’ve had like three top-2s in my profession. I imply, it’s not even a factor, proper?” He stated when requested concerning the odds of creating a late playoff run. “The Playoffs can be a bonus for me.”
They’d be a bonus, certain, however a significant one. Dahmen and his spouse expect a second little one quickly, and a handful of weeks of big-money paychecks to shut out the yr would go a lengthy manner in establishing Dahmen’s future aggressive standing … to say nothing of padding the toy choice within the nursery.
Nonetheless, these are uncharted waters for Dahmen, who has by no means skilled life as a PGA Tour professional with out Bonnalie on the bag. Fortunately, Geno will stay in his man’s nook this weekend in Greensboro. He’ll simply be taking up a distinct function.
“So yeah, I like him, I miss him,” Dahmen stated. “I feel we’ll see him out right here once more quickly.”
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