The pros and cons of having ‘nocturnal’ Joel Dahmen as a roommate

If we were ranking “PGA Tour players you’d most like to have a beer with,” there’s no question Joel Dahmen would be at the top of the list. The goofy, self-effacing pro has become one of the golf world’s most beloved figures since his star-studded introduction to the world on Netflix’s Full Swing.

But if we’re ranking “PGA Tour players you’d most like to live with”? Well, we’re not sure Joel would make the cut.

Take, for example, his former roommate at the University of Washington, PGA Tour pro Nick Taylor, who joined this week’s episode of Subpar to discuss, among other things, his two-year stint living with Dahmen.

“Joel was a great roommate,” Taylor said. “He loves to have fun, have a drink here or there. He’s not a motivator. But no, Joel’s got a heart of gold.”

Dahmen and Taylor were teammates on the Husky golf team back in the day, but their relationship quickly blossomed into a friendship when the two lived together on campus. It was a time Taylor remembers for a few distinct developments, which he elected to share in his interview with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.

“If you need a beer, here’s the man to get you one. Corn dogs, too. He was heavy into corn dogs. I don’t know if that’s a pro, necessarily,” Taylor said dryly. “Cons, probably not the cleanest.”

In truth, Taylor says, the mess paled in comparison to some of Dahmen’s other quirks, including the time he briefly destroyed his own sleep schedule.

“There was like a four or five-day stretch where he borderline went nocturnal, because he stayed up one night — and it wasn’t even because he was drinking — he just stayed up, couldn’t sleep,” Taylor said. “I get up to go to class in the morning and he was still awake watching SportsCenter.”

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“He always slept on the couch, he might have slept in his bed 5 times per year,” Taylor said. “He was like, ‘yeah I couldn’t sleep, I’m just going to stay up until bedtime tonight and go to sleep.’ That’s obviously not going to work when you’re lying on the couch all day. So he fell asleep at probably one in the afternoon, slept until six, and that was on repeat for like four or five days. That was Joe without Chelsea.”

And then there was the matter of security. In Taylor’s telling, the lock on their apartment door was finicky, which often resulted in Dahmen leaving the door unlocked when he left the apartment. In the stretch of one summer, the pair’s apartment was burglarized twice.

“I lived with Joel for two years, my second and third year at school. We got robbed twice, actually,” Taylor said. “Maybe Joel didn’t lock the door. First they stole all of our electronics, and I was like ‘ok, I guess I’ve gotta get a new TV or something.’ Joel calls again, ‘Yeah, they came in again and stole everything.’ I was like ‘What was left?’ He was like, ‘They stole all of my clothes.”

Jokes aside, Taylor says Dahmen remains one of his closest friends — and that the version of him shown to the golf world on Netflix is, in fact, the exact version of him that those who know him best see.

“What you saw him is exactly who he is,” he said. “He is self-deprecating but wants to win as much as anybody.”

To hear the rest of Dahmen’s interview, check out the video below.