Golf has some pretty stringent and strict rules in place and when it comes down to it, the very best in the world can fall foul at times.
Over the years, we’ve seen countless occasions of rules officials coming over to inspect a golf ball and from there, disagreements or decisions made that affect the outcomes of big events.
For most PGA Tour golfers, knowing these rules is extremely important, given that any sort of dropped shots or worse, a disqualification, could be catastrophic for them.
What should be the punishment for LIV golfers who want to return to the PGA Tour?
Luckily, with golf being the game it is, we don’t often see things get too heated. But there are times when the golfers themselves have nobody to blame but themselves.
Step forward, Joel Dahmen.
How Joel Dahmen received a four stroke penalty in 2024
Normally in the game of golf, we see rules infringements either lead to a straight DQ or more regularly, the player in question taking a shot or two penalty at most.
However, back in the 2024 season at he Shriner’s Children’s Open, we saw a bizarre situation unfold when Joel Dahmen was found to be in breach of the rules and received a whopping four stroke penalty.
Dahmen’s error?
He’d left one too many golf clubs in his bag and only realised a few holes into the tournament.
Golf rules state a player can carry a maximum of 14 clubs in the bag and some how, Dahmen managed to make it to 15 as he left a stray four iron in his bag from the practice sessions.
Needless to say, the penalty cost Dahmen big, as he pulled out of the event before the second round even began, sitting in 131st out of 132 players.
How Joel Dahmen reacted to having 15 clubs in his bag
Anyone who has watched the Netflix ‘Full Swing’ series will attest to Dahmen being a pretty stand up guy and it’s no surprise that he self-reported himself with this one.
Indeed, he took it as well as anyone might have at the time and reacted in a positive way, taking the blame for himself.
“I’d like to blame (caddie) Geno (Bonnalie). That would be the easy thing to do. It’s not his fault either,” Dahmen said. “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 commented at the time.
“Why, I don’t know. I don’t know how it got there. It sucks. It sucks at the spot I’m in as well. Yeah, we got to (No.) 4 tee and I grabbed a water and I walked over to my bag and I saw a 4-iron that was in the wrong spot, and our stuff is always in the right spot. It wasn’t in the right spot.”
It seems, then, that even he top pros can make mistakes and on this occasion, it was a very costly error indeed for the popular American.
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