‘I hate you, Joel’ – Harry Higgs channelled Liverpool legend John Arne Riise and Dahmen swirled shirt around as pints flew in wild Phoenix Open moment at PGA Tour’s rowdiest event

LIV Golf bills itself as “golf but louder” – although actually the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open best fits that description.

For some reason every February golf’s famous propriety goes on vacation and all hell breaks loose.

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Pints ​​fly on greens, missed putts are met with jeers, and silence over the ball? Pfff, no chance.

The bastions of golf etiquette watch in horror as their precious sport becomes something monstrous.

For everyone else, it’s sports theater at its best. Just ask Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen.

In 2022, Higgs finished T49 and Dahmen T62 in a week as Scottie Scheffler finally broke through with his first PGA Tour win.

But Scheffler wasn’t the story on Sunday night. His athletic triumph was overshadowed by a couple of guys flashing their nipples.

At the famed 16th hole, Higgs and Dahmen excited the crowd by becoming (we can only guess) the first professional golfers to remove their jersey on the PGA Tour.

Remember Liverpool legend John Arne Riise’s iconic celebration where he pulled his shirt over his head but didn’t remove it completely lest he get booked? Higgs did that a bit, but Dahmen did a helicopter full with his shirt and drank a beer.

Higgs later spoke about it on the No Laying Up podcast, explaining, “Me, Joel and Keith [Mitchell] visit the same trainer. We both take care of our golf bodies pretty well, but maybe not that great afterwards.

“I saw my coach on Saturday and Keith said, ‘I have $8,000 ready to pay the fine if you take your shirt off at 4.’

“I thought, ‘Fuck no, why would I ever do that?’ But it was all day.

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“I bogey everywhere. We get to 16, Keith batted first and he looked over at me. I thought, ‘No, don’t bring that up’.

“I had it in my head all day. Max Homa told me I have to do it. I almost made it on Saturday, this day is unique in the world of sports. It’s incredible.

“I sign my card for 76, go home, have a cocktail, and then I’m like, ‘Oh shit, I’m in 65th and Joel’s name is right next to me.’ It’s a twosome.

“Then Joel tweeted that if he got enough likes I would take my shirt off. But he didn’t number it.

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“In the morning I was like, ‘Dude fuck off, I’m not doing this, no’.

“We teed off on the 10th and during the descent four people asked me if it got enough retweets.

“It was every single stop, people were screaming it. If I could talk to them, I would say: “No, it didn’t, I don’t do it”.

“We get to 16, we tee off, and then it’s like, ‘Show some skin! Show some skin!’

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“Joel tells them to turn up the volume, I turn them off all the time.

“Then they yelled, ‘Take it off! Pull it out!’ They never stopped, I had to go through my routine and hit the putt, nobody is calm.

“As soon as I hit him I knew he was in, but the ball lasted two minutes and I was thinking the whole time if I should do it.

“It fell into the hole and I just did it. Best of all, as I took my ball out of the hole and turned around, Joel twirled his shirt.

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“At that moment I was like, ‘I hate you Joel, but good man, don’t let me do this on my own.’

“Then I lost all control. I ran around, jumped and blinked.

“Then the beers started flying. It’s not something to laugh at, someone could get seriously hurt, but the whole scene we created should be made to laugh.

“The Netflix people have been following us. One of them said: “I never thought we’d hear a golfer say, ‘Oh shit, I have to get dressed!'”

Catch the World Championship Phoenix Open from TPC Scottsdale in Arizona live on talkSPORT 2 from Thursday to Sunday!