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THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, August 15, 2014

| August 15, 2014 9:00 PM

Where PGA Tour Canada men's golfer Joel Dahmen was three years ago, battling testicular cancer, and how far he's come since then, winning his first two career pro events toward topping the PGA Tour Canada money list, is an inspiring story.

THE 26-year-old who was born in Lewiston has a unique perspective while playing in The Showcase, which begins at noon on Monday. Dahmen will be one of three pro golfers who will participate in The Showcase, a nine-hole pro-am golf exhibition at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course. Dahmen will play against PGA Tour pro Alex Prugh of Spokane, who played in 2007 in the U.S. Open and for the University of Washington, and Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela, who plays on the PGA Tour and won the 2011 Bob Hope Classic.

In March of 2011, at the age of 23, Dahmen was diagnosed with testicular cancer and in 2009, his older brother Zach was also diagnosed with testicular cancer. On April 18, 2005, their mother, Jolyn, died at the age of 46 at her home in Clarkston, Wash., after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Both Dahmen men are cancer free.

All proceeds from the event will benefit the Community Cancer Fund, a nearly six-month-old non-profit organization that is dedicated to fighting cancer in the Inland Northwest.

"This is my first time doing big-time charity work," said Dahmen, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his girlfriend of nearly three years, Lona Skutt. "I think this is something I've always wanted to do. Having my mom pass away from cancer and my brother having had cancer and myself having had cancer, it's something that's always been pretty close to me. I've always wanted to be successful enough to have my own foundation or have my own (charity) golf tournament, so for me to be able to participate in something like this, especially very close to my hometown and in the Inland Northwest is awesome and it's a great opportunity."

Dahmen has recovered with a bang during the past three years and he's now atop the PGA Tour Canada money list with $78,922 so far. After one top-10 finish in both the 2011 and 2012 years - including a tie for third place in 2012, at the SIGA Dakota Dunes Open - Dahmen racked up three top 10 finishes.

Dahmen, who was a two-time state 3A boys golf champion at Clarkston, which is located 122 miles south of the Coeur d'Alene Resort and four miles west and just across the Snake River from Lewiston, talked about his days suffering through cancer.

"I immediately had surgery and had chemotherapy through May (2011)," Dahmen said. "It was a three-month process for me, basically. Then the recovery time was through the summer but it was an eye-opening thing. You never think it can happen to you, even though it happened to (members of) my family. It's never something a 23-year-old kid, that you think anything's going to happen to you. You don't exactly think you're Superman like you think you are. It's a different perspective, you think of everything a lot more. You appreciate your friends, your family and some of the things you get to do. I get to play golf for a living and I mean, it's just incredible. I probably appreciate it a lot more now than I did in the past."

DAHMEN SAID he acted out a bit after going through the crushing loss of his mother, who was an elementary school teacher for more than 20 years, including at Whitman Elementary School in Lewiston. At the time his mom died, Joel was a 17-year-old junior in high school. The next year he played for one year at the University of Washington and eventually he turned pro at 21 in 2010. He made his first cut at the Times Colonist Open that year and he finished seventh.

The Huskies, after Dahmen had to drop out of school due to academic issues, went on to win two Pac-10 championships in 2009-10 and finished among the top five nationally twice.

"I was playing a lot of golf and I was recruited by a lot of schools," Dahmen said. "It was a really tough time and I was pretty lost for four or five years. I was making a lot of poor choices, I was not going down any of the right roads. I didn't know what to do and I finally woke up one day and knew I couldn't lead my life the way I was leading it and I had to change. I basically partied myself right out of college. I had a great scholarship at the University of Washington and I was on a great golf team, had everything right in front of me and I could've potentially played on a national championship golf team. If I could do that all over again, that would just be the first thing I'd probably do. I wasn't in a very good mind frame, I was kind of blaming everything on that and I was getting away with everything."

DAHMEN WAS in the top 10 three times in tournaments last year. But despite those successes, Dahmen had one of the lowest points of his playing career before this past winter, when he could not quite crack the PGA Tour Qualifying School, which is where players must compete with aspiring and tour professionals to make it to the PGA Tour.

"It was kind of rock bottom," Dahmen said. "I didn't get through the second stage of Q-school, so I couldn't move on to the tour. And I knew I was good enough to do it, I just couldn't get it done. I was pretty down about my whole golf game and that carried through to everyone else. When your career isn't going well, it carries on to everything else and I wasn't very happy. I think my girlfriend kind of helped me out with that and changed my perspective on life a little bit and really helped me out."

FAST FORWARD to this season, when Dahmen picked up his first career tournament victory on June 1, shooting a final round score of 68 to capture the PC Financial Open in Vancouver, British Columbia, sinking a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win by one shot. It was the first event of the PGA TOUR Canada's season.

Dahmen followed that career milestone by winning the Syncrude Boreal Open by five strokes on June 22 in Fort McMurray, Alberta. He shot 22 under to find himself as the first wire-to-wire PGA Tour Canada winner since 2008. He also finished second this year.

"It's been incredible being atop the money list," Dahmen said. "This is my fifth year playing on the tour. I've had some success, I've just never had the win that's eluded me. To get two wins has been incredible and to know that I control my own destiny. If I finish out the year strong, then I'll have full status at the Web.com Tour next year, and then that's when you're only one year away from the PGA Tour, which is the ultimate goal."

The top five players on the PGA Tour Canada Order of Merit earn Web.com Tour cards, with the money leader earning fully exempt status in every Web.com Tour event the next year.

For you baseball fans, think of PGA Tour Canada as Double-A, the Web.com Tour as Triple-A and the PGA Tour as Major League Baseball.

"You can kind of set your schedule and go from there and really set your eyes on the PGA Tour from that point," Dahmen said.

And Dahman can set his sights on what appears to be a promising golf career.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @bourq25