Joel Dahmen, in contention at Farmers, 'gets better at life' with help of Navy Seal

PGA Tour veteran Joel Dahmen visited San Diego late last year, and the three-day trip already is paying quick dividends in his return to Southern California.

On Friday, after shooting 2-under 70 at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open, Dahmen did a TV interview with CBS’s Amanda Balionis, who recalled how she bumped into Dahmen in San Diego, where she lives, and asked him, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to get better at life,” he replied.

Dahmen went on to explain that his performance coach, Chris Bertram, recommended he meet with a Navy Seal in order to “toughen up in a mental way.”

“When you think of Navy Seals, you think of crazy physical stuff, but honestly, it was more mental than anything,” Dahmen said. “We did some water training. I’m not Michael Phelps in the pool, that’s for sure. I did, I got better at life.”

Dahmen, 37, was the breakout star of the first two seasons of the Netflix documentary “Full Swing.” He struggled last season, recording just one top-10 finish in 30 starts. He needed to make two 6-foot putts at the RSM Classic – one to make the 36-hole cut and the other to wrap up a final-round 64 – to finish No. 124 on the season-long FedEx Cup standings and retain his fully-exempt Tour card for this season by the narrowest of margins.

“I don’t think I would’ve gotten through the fall if I didn’t have that training,” Dahmen said. “I can dig deeper than I thought I could before. There’s more in there. I’m just trying to tap into that more often.”

Dahmen survived the worst of the wind on Thursday to shoot even-par 72 and climbed to 5-under 211 in a four-way tie for fourth heading into Saturday’s final round. He sits four off the pace set by Harris English in his bid to win his second Tour title and for the first time since the 2021 Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship.

“I kind of was hoping Harris wasn't going to finish the way he did, give me a little more of a chance tomorrow,” Dahmen said of English, who birdied the last three holes to grab the solo lead. “If he plays well tomorrow, no one's going to catch him.”

And how can Dahmen's Navy Seal training help him in the final round?

“We’re going to find out,” he said.

You can watch the full interview on CBS here.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Thanks to a Navy Seal, Joel Dahmen has improved his mental toughness