Joel Dahmen has built a reputation for honesty, humor, and perspective, and on Saturday at the Farmers Insurance Open, he leaned fully into all three. Sitting six shots behind leader Justin Rose with one round to play, Dahmen didn’t sugarcoat what it might take to flip the leaderboard.

Dahmen’s position, solo second at 15 under, represents a significant week for the nine-year PGA Tour veteran. Rose, meanwhile, has been operating on a different plane. The 45-year-old, who received a bizarre request from a spectator, surged to 21 under with a third-round 68, setting a new 54-hole scoring record at the event and putting himself in position for what would be his second Farmers Insurance Open title.

• Steve Kerr makes U-turn after he ‘misspoke’ in Donald Trump and ICE criticism
• NFL owner gatecrashes live TV segment talking directly about his big call

“My only hope is if he doesn’t set his alarm or he somehow starts hitting in the rough on the back nine maybe. I don’t know,” Dahmen joked when asked about his chances of catching Rose.

Speaking with CBS and later expanding on his mindset, Dahmen explained how he keeps pressure from overwhelming the moment.

“It’s just golf,” Dahmen told Jim Nantz. “Out on the golf course, it is just golf. Like you can’t do anything else. You can’t do anything more, right? You can only hit the 7-iron as good as you can hit it. You can only go through your process as good as you can.”

Dahmen acknowledged the stakes without letting them dominate his thinking. “I mean, it’s my career, it’s my livelihood, it’s how I take care of my family and it’s been amazing to me,” he said. “But you have to dumb it down a little bit when you’re out there and try to just remember it is just golf. Then Sunday night you can add up all the cool things and all the neat things that happened after that.”

Dahmen has just one PGA Tour win, the 2021 Corales Puntacana Championship, and struggled in 2025, making only 12 cuts in 28 starts and finishing 93rd in the FedExCup standings. That left him with a conditional status and uncertainty about his schedule entering the new season.

“For 10 years out here, I’ve kind of got to pick my schedule mostly, and it’s been great,” Dahmen told Golf Digest earlier this week. “And I would say there’s a part in mid-December where I wasn’t doing a lot and hanging out with the family, and at times you’d be like, ‘I wonder if I’m only gonna get into 12, 15 events.’”

Even getting into the Farmers wasn’t guaranteed. Dahmen was the fifth alternate before late field changes opened the door. He’s made the most of it, highlighted by a second-round 63 that included three eagles on Torrey Pines’ North Course.

Still, he’s realistic about what he’s chasing. “At that point, it’s Justin’s week,” Dahmen said after watching Rose dismantle the South Course with elite iron play. “No one’s beating him this week.”

Rose, for his part, isn’t entertaining complacency. “There’s never going to be any complacency,” he said. “You know, I think there’s always enough respect for the game of golf in the back of your mind that you’ve got to do everything right tomorrow.”

Dahmen will play the final round knowing history is against him, as no player has ever lost a seven-shot 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour. He knows it, too.

“If Justin makes his tee time and continues to play this way, he’s going to win the golf tournament,” Dahmen said. “He’s just playing too well. So, maybe he will not set his alarm correctly or something might happen that way.”

• Justin Rose’s wife once sparked Rory McIlroy confusion as $1.7M at stake
• DP World Tour to make controversial LIV Golf decision after Rory McIlroy plea