Friendly pairing as Clarkston native Joel Dahmen begins FedEx Cup playoffs

Clarkston native Joel Dahmen, playing some of the finest golf of his career since the PGA Tour restarted in June, enters the first event of the FedEx Cup playoffs well positioned to make some noise.

Dahmen should be comfortable with his Northern Trust playing partners Thursday and Friday. He’ll be joined by former University of Washington teammate and roommate Nick Taylor and Tom Hoge in the first and second rounds at TPC Boston.

The group tees off at 9:33 a.m. PDT Thursday and 4:53 a.m. Friday. Taylor is No. 37, Dahmen No. 38 and Hoge No. 39 in the FedEx standings.

Five of Dahmen’s 11 career top-10 finishes have come this season, including a tie for 10th earlier this month at the PGA Championship in his most recent outing. Dahmen has been racking up FedEx Cup points with four top-20 finishes in seven tournaments since the Tour resumed.

Dahmen’s 70.43 scoring average is a career best. He finished at 70.57 in 2018.

Dahmen also qualified for the FedEx playoffs in 2018 and 2019.

He missed two cuts in 2018 and finished No. 80 in the FedEx standings. He tied for 24th at the BMW Championship in 2019 and finished No. 55 in the playoff standings.

The top 125 in the FedEx standings tee it up at the Northern Trust this week, with the top 70 moving on to the BMW Championship next week at Olympia Fields near Chicago.

The top 30 qualify for the final event: the Tour Championship at East Lake, Sept. 4-7 in Atlanta.