BROOKLINE, Mass. -- Joel Dahmen almost decided to skip his final 2022 U.S. Open qualifier earlier this month in Ohio.
He ended up going, played well and earned a spot in this week's tournament at The Country Club in Brookline. After 36 holes, Dahmen is the co-leader with Collin Morikawa at 5-under par.
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It's safe to say Dahmen is very pleased with his decision to give it a go in qualifying.
"I'm incredibly happy now for sure," Dahmen admitted Friday evening after shooting 2-under par in the second round. "Yeah, I mean, sometimes you take for granted what you have out here a little bit. I think this is my eighth or ninth major championship, and you think not long ago I would have done a lot of things to play in one, and to think that I have an opportunity just to skip one, kind of looking back, even this whole week, you don't appreciate really.
"I've played 130 some odd events. I've been six years out here. It's easy to get in a lull and be like, you just go home for two weeks and hang out and everything is all hunky-dory, but when you get here, everything changes as soon as you get on property. It's a USGA event. It's huge. People everywhere. So, yeah, that changes your mind pretty quickly."
What happened before the final qualifier?
Golf
"There was a lot of discussion leading up to it, yeah, the prior week. I told my wife I wasn't going to do it," Dahmen explained. "Then I was tired at Memorial and said I wasn't going to do it. I was never really going to do it until I played -- sort of played better at Memorial and the game was there.
"My coach, Rob Rashell, came out and things started to trend in the right direction. And then (my caddy Geno Bonnalie), I felt bad because he didn't switch his flight when he could have got home Sunday night, so at that point I had to stick it out."
Dahmen has one PGA Tour victory in his career -- the Corales Puntacana Championship in 2021. In his eight previous major championship appearances, he missed the cut four times. His best finish at a major is T-10th at the 2020 PGA Championship.
If Dahmen can keep playing great golf through Saturday, the crowd could be on his side Sunday afternoon. Who doesn't love an underdog story?
"It is unbelievable to me how many people know my name or yell for me out there," Dahmen said. "It's weird. I'm getting recognized a little bit more off the golf course, which is -- my wife will look at me, like, what is happening?
"It's not normal. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it, but it comes with good golf."
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