In the “Sun Belt”
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Featuring some of the best and most well maintained greens in the area! Located in the Sunbelt of Western Washington
We receive less rain during the wet season and less heat during the summer
Offering Discount Punch Cards No Expiration
Remember, we’re only 15 minutes from I-5 exit #212, in the “Sun Belt” on Camano Island.
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Camaloch Golf Course
(800) 628-0469
camalochgolf.com
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APRIL 2018
continued to win everything in sight, often as defending champion. The news articles about his junior victories fill four scrapbooks and his trophies liberally grace the Dahmen and Riggs residences. This run of excellence also resulted in an offer of a full-ride scholarship to the University of Washington, which was readily accepted. At age 17, Joel was on top of the world. His potential upside seemed unlimited and, locally, he was a true celebrity. Things were as bright as they could be. Then, things changed.
J
olyn was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October of 2004 and, six months later, she passed away at age 46. Joel was very close to his mother and her sickness hurt him more deeply than words can describe. Dealing with the long, terrible illness and watching his mom die a slow death put him in a major mental tailspin. The problem was accelerated because, though Joel had been a great communicator, he refused to talk about his mother’s situation. Instead, he went into a shell and watched her die, day by day, refusing to grieve properly or openly share his feelings. This still bothers Ed. “I look back and feel very bad,” he said. “I didn’t do
enough or pay enough attention to my boys. I was so focused on prayers and hoping the Lord would spare Jolyn that I wasn’t thinking as much about them as I should have been. Sure, I was hurting, big-time, but so were they, and I should have insisted on grief counseling or something to help them cope better. I regret the way I responded as a dad.” It was against this backdrop that, in August of 2006, 15 months after Jolyn passed, Joel went Seattle to claim his University of Washington scholarship. Things didn’t work out. “Golf-wise, I was okay, but I lacked life focus and maturity and just quit going to class,” he said. “Things were too far gone. I was a small-town kid without a lot of drive or direction to do anything. l missed my mother and didn’t handle that well at all. I plain flunked out.” With no other options on the table and a bitter taste in his mouth regarding college, Dahmen moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, and declared that he was now a professional golfer. He bounced around the mini tours, played in local Gateway events and tried to advance his position in the golf world. Things were moving slowly, and he was having very little success. “I wasn’t getting any better. I was with a bunch of other golf wannabes and we spent a lot of time partying and exercising practically no discipline,” Dahmen admitted.
cascadegolfer.com
