![\"Joel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SUT-L-golf-0201-017.jpg\")
Joel Dahmen plays his shot on the sixth hole during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South Course on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nHis interview with CBS complete, Joel Dahmen turned to walk into the adjacent press area when a PGA Tour official asked him to wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustin gets to go first?\u201d Dahmen said with a smile, referring to Justin Rose, who was a few steps ahead of him. \u201cJustin gets everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s certainly been the case through the first three rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, where Rose leads by six shots entering Sunday\u2019s final round. But it hasn\u2019t been a bad week for Dahmen, either \u2014 especially considering he wasn\u2019t even in the field until another player withdrew Monday morning.<\/p>\n
A second-round 63 Friday on the North Course put Dahmen into the final group for Saturday\u2019s third round, and he took advantage by shooting a 4-under 68, equaling his best score in 15 career trips around the South Course.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t gain any ground on Rose, but he shouldn\u2019t feel too bad, since only two of the other 72 players bettered their score. Dahmen (15-under 201) and Rose (195) will be together in the final group again Sunday, joined by Ryo Hisatsune.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think 68\u2019s a really good score on the South Course,\u201d Dahmen said. \u201cI can\u2019t really play a whole lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joel Dahmen plays his shot on the sixth hole during the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South Course on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
His strong play comes at a potentially opportune time. Dahmen doesn\u2019t have full-time status on the PGA Tour this season after finishing below the Top 100 last year, meaning he can\u2019t set his schedule. He\u2019s also not in any Signature Events, though he can play his way into all of them with a win or the first two (Pebble Beach and Riviera) through a points system in play for the first four regular tournaments (this is the third).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m playing great, but I\u2019m not surprised,\u201d he said. \u201cI love this place. I love this golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dahmen missed the cut here in four of his seven previous tries, but two of the three times he played the weekend, he finished tied for ninth, including last year.<\/p>\n
His only win in 239 previous starts came in March 2021 at an alternate-field event in the Dominican Republic. A second one Sunday feels unlikely, even to Dahmen, but he\u2019ll show up anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy only hope,\u201d Dahmen said, \u201cis if he doesn\u2019t set his alarm or he somehow starts hitting in the rough on the back nine maybe. I don\u2019t know. The way he\u2019s playing and what he\u2019s doing, I would be pleased with second place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wagner gets to work<\/p>\n
Johnson Wagner made a name for himself the last few years at Golf Channel by re-creating interesting shots viewers had seen earlier during network broadcasts. Perhaps most famous was his attempt to duplicate Bryson DeChambeau\u2019s winning bunker shot on the final hole of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.<\/p>\n
CBS hired Wagner \u2014 a three-time PGA Tour winner \u2014 in the offseason and wasted no time putting him to work during its first broadcast of the season. Just minutes after Brooks Koepka hit an iron off the cart path to the left of the fairway bunker on the first hole (Koepka\u2019s 10th of the day), Wagner went to the same spot for his network debut.<\/p>\n
Koepka\u2019s shot from 161 yards wound up 11 1\/2 feet from the pin, though he then three-putted for a bogey. Wagner wasn\u2019t as fortunate with his 7-iron shot, pulling it left into the rough (and scuffing the bottom of his club).<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, that\u2019s way left,\u201d Wagner said after contact. \u201cThat is not very good. \u2026 If I\u2019d hit it on the green, though, I wouldn\u2019t have three-putted.\u201d<\/p>\n
More Koepka<\/p>\n
Koepka\u2019s three-putt was indicative of his main issue this week in his first PGA Tour event since leaving for LIV Golf in 2022. He\u2019s next-to-last in the field in putting after missing six attempts Saturday from inside 5 1\/2 feet. He finished his round of 1-over 73 on the ninth hole with a three-putt from 39 inches.<\/p>\n
Koepka, who is 2 under for the week, said he\u2019s never putted well on poa annua greens, but he had no complaints with the conditions at Torrey Pines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese greens are actually really, really good,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has nothing to do with the greens. It\u2019s all me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just going to chalk it up to just a bad day, but I\u2019m happy with everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notable<\/p>\n
Chris Gotterup was one of just three players to reach the 619-yard 13th hole in two shots, and the only one to make eagle. But he almost did that one better, missing an albatross by an inch or two. After a 330-yard drive, Gotterup ripped a shot that rolled just past the hole. He tapped in from 13 inches away for the first eagle of the week on that hole. The last albatross at the Farmers was Shane Lowry on the sixth hole in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Seamus Power, who was second after two rounds, was 2 under through 11 holes but bogeyed four of the next five holes to fall 10 shots back at 11 under.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Stephan Jaeger (65) and defending champ Harris English (67) had the best rounds of the day, Jackson Suber (81) the worst. The field scoring average was 71.81.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His interview with CBS complete, Joel Dahmen turned to walk into the adjacent press area when a PGA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[63994,77334,74,76,75,21810],"class_list":["post-158615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-farmers-insurance-open","tag-joel-dahmen","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-torrey-pines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}