2025 Wyndham Championship leaderboard, scores: Joel Dahmen units tempo with Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott within the combine

It’s a spherical that might not have come at a greater time for Joel Dahmen. Getting into the 2025 Wyndham Championship at No. 101 within the FedEx Cup standings, the one-time PGA Tour winner shot out the gates Thursday at Sedgefield Nation Membership to take the first-round lead within the PGA Tour’s common season finale.

Carding a 9-under 61 to tie the bottom spherical of his profession, Dahmen jumped to the highest of the leaderboard for a one-stroke lead over Alex Noren heading into Friday’s second spherical.

“I do not know should you ever see 61 coming, however I noticed good golf coming,” Dahmen stated. “I went 45-ish holes final week with out a bogey to begin the match, performed rather well in Truckee on the Barracuda in addition to type of a weak Saturday. In case you take like 4 holes away final week, it was type of going to be a top-5. Trending as we prefer to say in golf, we’re at all times trending, proper, however we’re really trending, which is good.”

Along with his place atop the leaderboard after the preliminary chorus, Dahmen is projected to leap from exterior the highest 100 to inside the highest 50 within the FedEx Cup standings. Whereas the projection is good, the affable proper hander understands there’s loads of work to do between now and the end line given his precarious place in season-long race.

Dahmen entered the week in want of not less than a two-way tie for second-place to climb inside the highest 70. He’ll do properly to perform simply that, however a win would take plenty of the calculations out of the equation and safe him of a tee time at subsequent week’s St. Jude Championship.

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“I imply, I’ve had like three top-2s in my profession,” Dahmen stated. “I do not know, 4 of ’em perhaps? I imply, it is not even a factor, proper? Yeah, nice to make the Playoffs, that might be unbelievable, give me plenty of time without work this fall. We have got a child coming so that might take some stress off of that. The Playoffs are a bonus for me. I am simply going to exit and attempt to play good golf, and I suppose if I play rather well, then I get to play one other week.”

Whereas Dahmen dances with a possible playoff push, his pursuers are those that look to push nearer to the second week of the postseason. Defending champion Aaron Rai continued his love affair with the Donald Ross design on Thursday as he carded eight birdies towards one bogey for a gap 63.

He was matched at that quantity by former PGA Tour Rookie of the 12 months Cameron Younger, who completed his spherical with six birdies in his remaining seven holes. Younger nonetheless searches for his first PGA Tour victory and can be the 1,000th distinctive winner within the league’s historical past ought to he go onto win.

In the meantime, 13-time winner Jordan Spieth pushed his title onto the primary web page of the leaderboard with a 65 of his personal. No. 50 within the FedEx Cup standings, Spieth got here to Greensboro, North Carolina trying to enhance his standing and solidify his spot within the BMW Championship in two weeks’ time.

The chief

1. Joel Dahmen (-9)

The caddie carousel of 2025 hit Dahmen’s camp this previous month when he parted methods along with his longtime bagman and good pal Geno Bonnalie after a decade-long partnership. Needing to take extra possession of his recreation, Dahmen has since put collectively some higher outcomes, together with a prime 20 on the Barracuda Championship.

With how properly Dahmen struck the ball on Thursday, it will not have mattered who was on the bag. He gained over three strokes along with his scoring golf equipment with eight of his 10 birdies coming from inside 15 ft. A few bonus long-distance connections from 23 ft on No. 2 and 50 ft on No. 7 made up the opposite two circles on his scorecard.

“Man, I like Geno. We nonetheless textual content virtually every day,” Dahmen stated. “He is doing properly. Yeah, I imply, I miss him however typically the toughest — it’s important to do one thing exhausting to — look, it wasn’t a straightforward resolution. I will not say I am not comfortable about it however prefer it’s exhausting. He is my finest pal, he is nonetheless my finest pal. 

“However I needed to change one thing with me. It was extra about me. It was my mentality, it was what I used to be doing and I have to take possession of what I used to be doing. I used to be not doing a superb job of that. So a manner for me to do it is so simple as simply taking part in golf alone somewhat bit. So yeah, I like him, I miss him. I feel we’ll see him out right here once more quickly.”

Different contenders

2. Alex Noren (-8)
T3. Aaron Rai, Cameron Younger, Nico Echavarria, Mark Hubbard (-7)
7. Sungjae Im (-6)
T8. Jordan Spieth, Chandler Phillips, Adam Scott, Lee Hodges, Matt Wallace, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Noah Goodwin, Matteo Manassero, Paul Peterson, Mac Meissner, Ricky Castillo (-5)

Spieth got here into the week assured his play was higher than the outcomes indicated, and on Thursday he took a step in the direction of matching the 2. Piecing collectively a spherical that might of gotten out of hand with how he struck the golf ball at numerous phases, the three-time main champion battled again from an early birdie to place himself for his first true competition run of 2025.

Spieth leaned closely on the putter within the center portion of his spherical with conversions from 12 ft, 50 ft, 12 ft, 16 ft and 17 ft in a eight-hole stretch. Righting the ship from there, he made 4 birdies in his remaining 5 holes together with makes from 14 and 16 ft to finish. Whereas the putter was popping off, Spieth will want the remainder of his recreation to begin carrying its weight transferring ahead.

“I imply every thing was OK,” Spieth stated. “I did not drive the ball significantly properly till the final 5 or 6 holes. Similar with my iron play, was actually the final seven holes or so. So I used to be type of just a bit bit off to begin. I did not have a fantastic warmup this morning and it type of translated, nevertheless it was good to hold in there, get some breaks on the greens and be a pair underneath whereas I wasn’t actually, actually feeling superb about my recreation. Then I began to type of get in a pleasant rhythm to complete and hopefully carry that into the remainder of the week.”

Projected FedEx Cup bubble

2025 Wyndham Championship up to date odds and picks

Odds through DraftKings Sportsbook

• Aaron Rai: 7-1
• Alex Noren: 8-1
• Joel Dahmen: 12-1
• Cameron Younger: 12-1
• Nico Echavarria: 16-1
• Jordan Spieth: 18-1
• Mark Hubbard: 22-1
• Robert MacIntyre: 28-1

There are some names on the prime of the leaderboard, however none that strike an excessive amount of worry with 54 holes to go. As a substitute, let’s take a look at Bezuidenhout, who stands solely 4 strokes off Dahmen’s tempo after hitting 11 of 14 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation. Usually a fantastic putter, the South African ought to begin transferring up the leaderboard if that membership begins to cooperate. He’s priced at 30-1, whereas Max Homa at 60-1 could also be a enjoyable dart throw as properly at 4 underneath.