Joel Dahmen and Geno Bonnalie are putting the band back together – at least for one week – at the Players Championship.
The best friends and former Netflix stars of “Full Swing,” who split last summer after a decade together, are reuniting at TPC Sawgrass for the Tour’s flagship event.
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Bonnalie has been on the bag for Isaiah Salinda, a 28-year-old Stanford product who is seeking his first Tour title, since the 2025 Sanderson Farms Championship in October, but Salinda failed to qualify for the Players. On the back of two top-10 finishes on the West Coast Swing, Dahmen earned a spot in the 120-man field at the Players.
Joel Dahmen and caddie Geno Bonnalie walk the 17th hole during the final round of the 2025 Corales Puntacana Championship at Puntacana Resort & Club.
Dahmen said they remain best friends and still talk and text all the time. During one of those regular conversations, Bonnalie said to him, “If you play well and you get into Players, I’m available.”
“He asked me first and I said, ‘OK, you can do it,’” Dahmen recalled.
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Dahmen, 38, has been reluctant to hire a fulltime caddie since parting ways in July with Bonnalie, relying on friends on the bag such as his swing coach Rob Rashell and Oregon State men’s golf coach Joe Reehoorn.
“I kind of like the caddie by committee. Chris Kirk did it for a long time. Basically, I know what I’m doing so I can use anyone who is not going to cost me strokes and is fun to hang out with. Hopefully I’ll have someone steady soon,” he said.
The buddy split happened just a few months after childhood friends Max Homa and Joe Greiner had broken up. Dahmen had been the breakout star of the Netflix documentary on the PGA Tour and he and Bonnalie delivered some of the most heartfelt moments in Season 2. Their split left fans stunned and the duo have been tight-lipped about it.
“I think the No. 1 reason is we weren’t making each other better anymore. We were talking a lot of golf, enjoying ourselves on and off the course but I wasn’t playing well and he was easy to dismiss in a professional environment. I wasn’t respecting him as I should,” Dahmen explained.
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They’ve got a solid track record together at TPC Sawgrass, with Dahmen making the cut in five of six appearances and finishing T-11 in 2024.
“He’s got the week off, it’s a nice purse and we’re renting a house,” Dahmen said. “I miss him all the time. We still spend a ton of time together. I was supposed to stay with him in Puerto Rico this week (until Dahmen got into the Arnold Palmer Invitational). We are still best friends.”
That begged the question: Could they reunite on a full-time basis again?
“The door is never closed between us,” Dahmen said. “We still have dreams of being on the Champions Tour together and walking off into the sunset together but that’s still a long way off.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Joel Dahmen, caddie Geno Bonnalie reunite for 2026 Players Championship
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