Joel Dahmen confirmed that he has parted ways with longtime caddie Geno Bonnalie, splitting the pair that rose to stardom during the Netflix documentary series “Full Swing.”

Dahmen and Bonnalie grew up as childhood friends in Clarkston, Wash. and began working together on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2015. Bonnalie was on the bag when Dahmen won his lone PGA Tour event to date at the 2021 Corales Puntacana Championship, but the 37-year-old has struggled with his form much of the past two years.

After grinding to retain his PGA Tour card last fall, Dahmen has fallen to 172nd in the Official World Golf Ranking while missing 12 of 19 cuts in 2025. He set the 36-hole scoring record at Puntacana in April and entered the final round with a three-stroke lead, only to suffer a meltdown that included missing a 1-foot putt on the 17th hole and missing out on a playoff by one shot.

Dahmen acknowledged at the time that “this one could take a while to get over,” and he has not advanced to the weekend in seven of eight starts since. That includes at last week’s Scottish Open, where he missed the cut by four shots.

Dahmen sits 117th in the FedEx Cup standings, well outside of the top 70 who will qualify for the first leg of next month’s playoffs. Only the top 100 players at the end of the year will retain full playing status for 2026.

“We’re still the best of friends and that will never change,” Dahmen wrote in a post on X. “But we both know that a fresh perspective is sometimes needed and it’s been a great run. I couldn’t be more proud of what we have achieved together as guys from a small town in the middle of nowhere.

“I am going to keep the main focus on the task at hand to end the year and put myself in position to make a run.

“We are grateful for so much this game has given us. Lets finish strong.”

We’re still the best of friends and that will never change. But we both know that a fresh perspective is sometimes needed and it’s been a great run. I couldn’t be more proud of what we have achieved together as guys from a small town in the middle of nowhere.

I am going to keep… pic.twitter.com/ZQIBLsl0m1

— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) July 15, 2025

Dahmen is in the field for this week’s opposite-field event at the Barracuda Championship, but has not revealed who will be on his bag. He joins a list of players who have changed caddies this year that includes world No. 6 Collin Morikawa and Max Homa, a six-time winner on tour who has tumbled to No. 101.

No. 3 Xander Schauffele, who is in Northern Ireland this week to defend his title at The Open Championship, was asked about the “caddie carousel drama” of late and how his relationship with his own longtime caddie, Austin Kaiser.

“I know I put myself in his shoes, and I want him to give me his honest advice,” Schauffele said Tuesday. “I trust him. He played golf. He’s a good player. When I ask him for his advice, tell me what you think — and we know each other’s tendencies when we play golf as well. He hits his putts harder than I do, so he’s always on maybe a little bit lower read, things of that nature.

“But I told him, ‘I won’t ever fire you because you thought it was this and I thought it was that, and if I was right, that’s not going to be the difference-maker.’

“There’s a lot of variables in golf. Austin is a great guy, a great caddie. He’s one of my best friends. I think, if you can keep your caddie as a constant, it’s an advantage.”

–Field Level Media

The public is divided when it comes to speculating who can upend the top two players in the world at The Open Championship this week.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 2 Rory McIlroy, winners of the PGA Championship and Masters, respectively, are the clear pre-tournament favorites at all sportsbooks. They are widely followed by LIV Golf members Jon Rahm and Bryon DeChambeau, who are garnering plenty of betting interest as well.

But who is the next J.J. Spaun, the surprise U.S. Open champion who paid off handsomely for the small percentage of the public who took a flier on the previously little-known American?

Scheffler is the +450 favorite at DraftKings, where he leads the field with 11 percent of the total bets backing him to claim the third leg of the career grand slam this week. McIlroy, at +750, leads by a small margin with 11 percent of the total money backing him to Scheffler’s 10 percent.

Next is Rahm at 8 percent followed by Viktor Hovland (+3000), who has graced the final stages at several majors but has yet to claim one. He has been backed by 6 percent of the money, just ahead of Tommy Fleetwood (+2800), also at 6 percent. Fleetwood also has yet to win a major title, and just two starts ago came agonizingly short of claiming his first win on United States soil at the Travelers Championship.

This has not yet been the breakout season many predicted for young Swede Ludvig Aberg, but that can change quickly with a win at Royal Portrush this week. Aberg is ranked ninth in the world coming off a T8 at the Scottish Open.

He is +3000 at DraftKings despite missing the cut at the past two majors. Aberg also missed the cut at The Players, although he did finish seventh at the Masters. Sixth at DraftKings, Aberg is being backed by 4 percent of both the total money and bets placed on this week’s winner.

Aberg is also the third biggest liability for BetMGM, behind only Scheffler and McIlroy. He has been backed by 6.5 percent of the money, with Scheffler leading the way at 15.7 percent followed by McIlroy at 12.1 percent.

All are among the top 10 pre-tournament favorites at both books. So, who has the best potential to produced a Spaun-like performance?

Matt Fitzpatrick is a former U.S. Open champion himself, but has spent the better part of the past two years struggling with his form. Fitzgerald has found some reason to hope of late as he enters this week on the heels of a T8 and T4 in his past two starts, but still provides longshot odds of +5500 at DraftKings.

Another interesting name is Marco Penge, the Englishman who rose 78 spots to No. 92 in the world with last week’s T2 in Scotland. Since opening at +20000 at BetMGM, Penge saw his odds cut in half to +12500 despite garnering only 0.3 percent of the total money.

The man few seem to be talking about is defending champion Xander Schauffele. He has waded through a winless season to date and has been backed by only 3.2 percent of the money at BetMGM. That’s still more than at DraftKings, where Schauffele has been supported by only 3 percent of both the total bets and money at +2500.

“If I can get myself in the mix is when I think I would have an advantage,” Schauffele said Tuesday. “That’s where my biggest edge would be. I can lean on experience at other points in time, but I think the most fun and the biggest advantage I would have is coming down the stretch if I can get close to that lead.”

–Field Level Media

Bryson DeChambeau chuckled when he said it last year but there’s no denying the difference between plan and execution when playing in challenging conditions that are typically par for the course in The Open Championship.

DeChambeau missed the cut with 10 bogeys in 36 holes at the Open in 2024 at Royal Troon, where he made the comment he can do it when conditions are “warm and not windy.” In 2023, he got in all four rounds but tied for 60th at 7-over.

Of course, perfect isn’t in the forecast for the first round of the 153rd Open Championship with temperatures at Northern Ireland’s Royal Portrush expected to reach 70 degrees with rain and 18 mph wind gusts.

DeChambeau, 31, has come to appreciate the Open challenges — part mental, part physical and a double dose of balancing flammable emotions. He said Tuesday it’s “pretty simple to talk about but sometimes difficult to execute” the perfect approach in this tournament.

For starters this week, DeChambeau wants to keep it simple: avoid bunkers and putt better than ever.

“Just try to be as strategic as possible and put the ball in a place where I can give myself good chances for birdie but also not give myself too many difficult places to play from is the goal,” DeChambeau said.

With a top-10 in the Open at St. Andrews in 2022 on his record, DeChambeau knows he can contend if he executes that plan. Recent performances on the LIV Golf circuit in windy conditions at Miami and at Real Club Valderrama in Andalucia last week add more confidence, but DeChambeau was quick to point out this week’s conditions will be different.

“Heavy wind is a great way to describe it. It’s thick,” DeChambeau said of the Northern Ireland gusts. “It just — OK, I’m not going to say that. You know, it’s one of those situations where you’re in the environment and you go, ‘All right, this feels like a 15-mile-an-hour wind.’ And all of a sudden it plays like a 30-mile-an-hour wind, and you’re like, what the heck? So I think that’s the trick of it. If you grew up here, you play a lot of golf over here, you get quite comfortable and knowledgeable about that. I just need more reps in a sense.

“Hopefully I’ve had enough reps to be able to do that. I played well in some windy conditions. Andalucia was a good test last week in the first few days. Played well. But again, the wind is different from there to here. We’ll see how it goes this week. Hopefully it stays warm and my body stays warm.”

A big finish in Ireland, coupled with top fives at The Masters and PGA Championship, would likely solidify DeChambeau’s spot on Keegan Bradley’s roster for the 2025 Ryder Cup.

DeChambeau said he’s highly aware of the Ryder Cup decision — he is currently ranked 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking — but he is counting on the self-applied pressure to bring out his best this week.

“I feel pressure every week to play good for not only Keegan but myself, and the people that I love online and everybody that’s watching me. I absolutely feel pressure,” he said.

“I put enough pressure on myself already. For my country, for the game of golf, I do … but I’m excited for the challenge. It makes me more excited. When I feel those nerves, I’m like, OK, let’s go. It’s like I’ll walk through the fire rather than run away from it for me.”

–Field Level Media