Is Joel Dahmen ready to contend at Quail Hollow? He already is.

Don’t tell Joel Dahmen he’s not ready to compete with golf’s biggest names this weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Yes, Dahmen is winless on the PGA Tour. And yes, he’s going against such stars as Rory McIlroy, Jason Dufner, Jason Day and Patrick Reed — all major championship winners.

But, no, Dahmen isn’t intimidated.

“Week in and week out, or over the course of a career, they’re going to be way better than I am,” Dahmen said Thursday after completing a round of five-under 66 that tied him for the first-round lead with McIlroy.

“But golf is awesome because on any given week or day, anybody can beat anybody. I played as well as Rory (Thursday) and I beat everybody else in the field. There’s no reason I can’t do that for three more days.”

Dahmen, 31, took another step in that direction Friday. He’s tied for second with Max Homa, a shot behind Dufner after shooting a 5-under 66. He’s 10-under for the tournament.

“Those guys expect week in and week out to be on the leaderboard and to be around,” Dahmen said. “Am I that good? No. But when I’m playing my best I can compete with a lot of people. Is my best as good as Rory’s? Absolutely not. Is my best top-10 in the world? No. But is it good enough to compete week in and week out? Absolutely.”

Dahmen will play in the PGA Championship in two weeks, the first time in his three-year career on tour that he’s earned a spot in a major. He also hopes to qualify for June’s U.S. Open, which will be played at Pebble Beach, which he says is his favorite course.

Dahmen, a native of Washington state, hasn’t qualified to play in the Masters yet. In fact, he didn’t even watch in April when Tiger Woods won.

Instead, Dahmen was competing in a local tournament called the “HackMasters” in his hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I was the only idiot in the world who didn’t watch it,” Dahmen said of Woods’ historic victory. “Someone came up on our 16th hole and was like, ‘Tiger is going to win the Masters.’ I’m like, ‘Cool, I can’t believe I just missed all that.’”

Dahmen, who recovered from testicular cancer in 2011, has been trending up this season. He finished tied for ninth at the Farmers Insurance Open and tied for 12th at The Players. He’s now poised to contend in Charlotte. But whatever happens, happens.

“I’ve been through life and death,” Dahmen said. “This is not it. Sometimes I probably act like it out there and have to remind myself. But I’ve been through so much more. I mean, I’m a kid from Clarkston, Wash., who’s on the PGA Tour. That just doesn’t happen.”

On Friday, when he started his round on the back 9, Dahmen turned in 34. On the front, he kept pace with Dufner (who shot a day’s best 63) with birdies on holes two, three and four. He also pared another stroke off par at seven. Even with a bogey at nine, Dahmen had his second 66 — along with an ideal spot to launch his weekend and perhaps a new phase of his golfing career.

Dahmen planned on going with his wife to a Lady Antebellum concert at nearby Carmel Country Club on Friday night. He wasn’t sure what he would do Saturday morning — maybe watch Netflix or work out, he said — while waiting for an afternoon tee time with one of the day’s final groups.

“I need to do it on the weekend,” he said. “I need to do it on Sunday. I want to be in the hunt with nine to play. That’s the goal. I haven’t really been there yet. I’m good enough to. I should be there. I should have chances by now. I just kind of need to get out of my own way and let it go.

“I mean, there’s four steps, Thursday through Sunday. Step one, I seem to have figured that out every now and then. (Friday) was step two, so figured out this one.

“The weekend’s a whole other animal. There’s so much golf left that I could go out and lay an egg and no one hears from me again. Yeah, step two is great. Hopefully there’s more to come.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2019 at 1:08 PM.