He has earned bigger paychecks in the past, and he has finished higher on the leaderboard. But never has victory on the PGA Tour seemed as tantalizingly close for Joel Dahmen as it did in February in Los Angeles.

Never, in fact, has the Clarkston High School graduate played such high-level golf as he has this year. He hasn’t missed a cut since November, and he has tied for fifth place in his two most recent tournaments.

In other words, it’s not a terrific time for the late-blooming 32-year-old, in his fourth year on the Tour, to be lying low at his Scottsdale, Ariz., home and waiting for the sports world to end its hibernation amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s a little frustrating, but at the same time we’re making the most of it,” Dahmen said by phone this week, the “we” alluding in part to his wife, Lona, who attends perhaps 80 percent of his tournaments, and to his caddie, Lewiston’s Geno Bonnalie. “We’re very lucky that we got off to a good start so far this year, and we’re in a good spot for whenever golf starts back up.”

He pretty much concurred with the notion that the apex of his career so far came in the Genesis Invitational in mid-February at Riviera Country Club in L.A., where he missed a 12-foot putt on the second-to-last hole that would have nudged him into a share of the lead. He wound up in a tie for fifth, three strokes behind winner Adam Scott, and pocketed $318,999.

“That was definitely the closest I’ve come to winning,” said Dahmen, a naturally powerful ball-striker who continues to add finesse to his game as he grows more familiar with PGA courses. “Definitely felt it. Sitting over a putt on (No.) 17 with a chance to tie the lead is a pretty big deal, especially in that field. It’s one of the premier events on our schedule, at an iconic golf course.”

It had a different feel than, say, the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship in May 2019 in Charlotte, N.C., where Dahmen placed second and earned $853,200. That’s technically his best showing on the Tour, but his friend and practice partner Max Homa — a player of similar skills whose recent results have strikingly paralleled those of Dahmen — held a commanding lead throughout the back nine on his way to his first career title, by three strokes. Dahmen wasn’t allowed a whiff of glory.

Of course, that’s more or less the norm in pro golf.

Some of Dahmen’s most spectacular recent moments have happened far under the radar, but they twice helped him make the Friday cut by narrow margins. The most remarkable example came in the Phoenix Open, on his adopted home course of TPC Scottsdale, where he finished with an eagle and a birdie on the final two holes of the second round to make the cut by a stroke.

Strangely, the rally came in the face of an illness that would grow so debilitating that Dahmen withdrew from the tournament before the final round. Two months later, amid a worldwide flu pandemic, he was a little taken aback to be talking about the flu-like (but not respiratory) symptoms he and Lona were experiencing at the time.

But this was in late January, when only 11 coronavirus cases had been reported in the United States, most of them involving travel from Wuhan, China. Dahmen has no reason to believe he had anything but conventional flu. But he said he might have withdrawn before his second-round flurry if not for all the relatives and friends who had gathered to watch him play. He made it worth their while.

Many of his fans, of course, live here in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, where he grew up and learned to play golf. He still pays periodic visits here, most recently in late December, when he checked in on his grandparents, caught a Clarkston boys’ basketball game (the Bantams absorbed one of their six losses of the season that night) and expressed his gratitude to supporters.

Dahmen’s recent surge has included four top-10 finishes since September, including a tie for fifth in the Arnold Palmer Invitational early this month, a showing that got him into the British Open field. He made his debut in that revered event in 2019 and, although he failed to make the cut, views the experience as the high point of his year.

Other goals look attainable, provided the pandemic allows pro golf to resume at some point. Sitting at No. 37 in the FedEx Cup standings, Dahmen also is 70th in the world rankings (one spot ahead of Homa). If he can climb 10 spots in the world, he’ll qualify for the U.S. Open (precariously scheduled for June 18-21) for the second consecutive year, having received an at-large invitation in 2019. The New York Post reported late Thursday the tournament will be the third major of the year to be postponed and moved, but a United States Golf Association spokeswoman said the event at Winged Foot in New York still is scheduled to go on as planned.

Nor is Dahmen reluctant to mention a more obvious goal: winning a PGA title. The sensation he felt in February on the 17th green at Riviera makes the prospect seem more real.

“If I keep putting myself in that position,” he said, “I definitely think a win is coming.”

Grummert may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2290.