Q. Joel, first of all, No. 9, the cut is probably going to be 1, but might go to 2. Were you aware of where it was at all?
JOEL DAHMEN: I was very aware of where the cut was. I made the eight- or ten-ish footer, whatever at the last and Geno was like, That was huge. I just assumed it was going to be 1. It was 1 all day. Didn't think it was ever going to be 2, and he's like, It's 264. I was in a very difficult spot for getting up-and-down, almost laying it up long, not taking it on, thinking I could make 6 and get out of there.
Honestly, kind of lagged the putt. That's weird when that happens, when you hit putts with good speed, they go in, and luckily that one went in.
Q. What was the difference between yesterday and today between going 76 and 66?
JOEL DAHMEN: 10 strokes. So, for me it's putting. I did a little bit of a change yesterday in the setup, because I like the way the stroke looks better, but I wasn't very comfortable with it. I was thinking about mechanics putting instead of being an athlete, and today I just -- when you have to go make birdies, you turn into kind of an athlete, and that seemed to work a lot better.
Q. Is that a conscious thing in your warmup that you're going to be more athletic?
JOEL DAHMEN: Yeah, so it was immediately after the round, like talking with the coach and Geno, and it was like, Hey, you just look uncomfortable. I was like, Yeah, it's very uncomfortable. That was the thing. It's like, All right, we've got 24 hours to shake it off, come back tomorrow and be an athlete and hit the putts as well as you can hit them, and thankfully they went in today.
Q. No. 9, could you talk through where you were and --
JOEL DAHMEN: Yeah, so definitely started to feel the nerves after I made a birdie on 4, because that got me to 1-under. Then all of a sudden pulled a few tee shots coming into 9 -- like water is right. I'm thinking I need a bogey to get in the house, and it's not ever a good way to think about it, but I pulled it in the left pine straw. Luckily had a gap to chip it towards the hole. Hit it about 50 or 60 yards down there and still had 245 hole.
Geno, he was more aggressive into the green. I thought about laying up and just hitting a wedge on and two-putting. And he's like, No, I think we should get it up around the green. So hit a great hybrid and it just came out a little left but I smoked it, and it was down there just left, but it's short-sided, the green is elevated there, very difficult spot and actually hit a great chip to eight, ten feet and made the putt.
Q. What's it mean to make the cut in general and then when you're grinding the cut line after a tough opening round?
JOEL DAHMEN: Yeah, making a cut, even if you don't play well on the weekend, it's two more days to work on things, to compete. And THE PLAYERS Championship, it's a major. There's a lot of points this weekend. There's a lot of money this weekend. The leaderboard is pretty bunched right now. So a good weekend can go a long ways.
We all hate missing cuts. The grind of making a cut is very satisfying. Yeah, so I'm going to sleep well tonight.
Q. To make the cut, you alluded to it, but here with tomorrow sold out, to go put on a show tomorrow in front of the fans --
JOEL DAHMEN: Yeah, this is an unbelievable venue. It's packed out here on a Friday afternoon. Tomorrow is going to be great. Hopefully the weather holds up.
Yeah, coming down 16, 17, 18, there's nothing better when the fans are out and you hit a good shot in there and they're all yelling for you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports