Tour pro hits 208-yard, “smother hook” drive. Then Caddy has some fun

Joel Dahmen’s mood was good.

Geno Bonnalies was fun.

And a question about a 208-yard “smother hook” drive was born.

Of course, if you know Dahmen, a tour pro, and Bonnalie, his caddy, you know that the atmosphere around them is usually relaxed. They’ve gained a following for their behavior, especially after appearing on Netflix earlier this year Full of momentum. So it was similar on Thursday. Wonderful.

First of all, Dahmen has struggled since June. Starting with the Memorial, he has missed six of eight cuts. He didn’t make the PGA Tour playoffs. He went home for a few weeks. He came to the Fortinet Championship this week. He shot a three-under 69.

And Dahmen was perhaps the most surprised of everyone at Silverado Resort.

“I mean, I’ve been playing terrible golf this calendar year and haven’t really done much in the last five weeks since Wyndham,” he said. “I played a few times at home with friends, but I had no expectations. Actually played quite nicely today. I made a lot of good putts.”

Had Dahmen been working on anything before this week?

Diapers. His son Riggs was born earlier this year.

“No, I just really enjoyed the time with the family,” he said. “I was able to spend a lot of time with my child. I really enjoyed being a dad, so golf was the furthest thing from my mind. It’s just fun to come here. We enjoy the food and some wine, and golf is a bit secondary, so it was nice to get off to a good start.”

What did he like about Thursday’s round?

He played with his friend Max Homa. He was with Bonnalie again.

“I had a good pair,” Dahmen said. “Of course it’s fun to play with Max. He’s one of the best players in the world now, he feeds off it a bit and just hangs out. I hadn’t seen Geno in five weeks either, so it was just fun to kind of meet him, chat, hang out and play a little golf.”

That brings us to the question.

At one point, Bonnalie had spoken to a reporter about Dahmen’s tee shot on the 424-yard par-4 16th.

And Bonnalie wanted the reporter to ask Dahmen about the shot, which went deep left and 208 yards.

So here are the old Dahmen and Bonnalie.

Is that frivolous? Yes. Is it fun? Yes.

“I don’t know where he’s taking you with this. He said to ask about your tee shot on the 16th. I didn’t see any golf today, so not…”

“Sixteen, which hole is 16?” That was three holes ago. The new routing is confusing me. Sixteen is a par-3. I hit it on the green.”

But that was 17. What about 16?

“Oh yeah. That wasn’t good.”

“I don’t know if he set me up. Was that the best shot of the day?”

“It was the worst. It’s just pretty simple. You hit like a 3-wood or driver down there and only have a wedge to the green. Somehow I managed to hit that low, smother hook and have 200 yards left instead of a wedge, but I came away with a par.

“But thanks, Geno, for bringing up the worst ride of the day.”

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Publisher

Nick Piastowski is a senior editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across golf. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can contact him about any of these topics – his stories, his playing or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.