Brad Dalke made the cut in his first DP World Tour start, backing up an opening 3-under 69 with a 6-under 66 on Friday at the BMW International Open in Munich. The 28-year-old former Good Good Golf star sits at 9-under through 36 holes, one shot behind early second-round clubhouse leader Carlos Ortiz, and currently sits T3 on the leaderboard.
Dalke is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption. It is his first appearance in a world-ranked event since the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2020 Evans Scholars Invitational, and just his sixth world-ranked start overall. He previously missed the cut at the 2016 Valero Texas Open, the 2017 Masters and the 2017 U.S. Open, the latter two coming after he qualified via his runner-up finish at the 2016 U.S. Amateur.
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Dalke announced his departure from Good Good, the YouTube channel with more than 2.1 million subscribers, on June 25, citing personal and family reasons. He mixed 11 birdies against just two bogeys across his first 36 holes at Golfclub München Eichenried.
“Obviously, I didn’t have a goal coming into this week,” Dalke said Friday. “I just wanted to have some fun and enjoy it. And obviously, shooting 66 is pretty fun, so that helps the cause. Yesterday, that first tee shot, I was shaking like a leaf.”
Dalke started his second round on the back nine and opened with back-to-back birdies. A birdie at the 14th was offset by a bogey at the 15th, his second of the tournament. He added a pair of birdies as he made the turn, then birdied the fifth and the par-5 ninth to close out the round.
“It was another great day of putting for me,” Dalke said. “The putting’s really kept me in there. I have had about four or five holes through these first two days where I kind of had a chance to maybe lose a lot of momentum and my putter was able to keep me in it and really keep good rounds going. I haven’t struck it fantastic per se, but hit it good enough and made a lot of putts.”
His opening round on Thursday nearly included a hole-in-one on the par-3 second hole, where his tee shot from 230 yards settled a few feet away for a tap-in birdie. That round of 69 beat the scores of Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed and Eugenio Chacarra.
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“I try not to look at leaderboards, but it’s hard not to miss them out there and I see my name up there for the first time,” Dalke said. “It’s very nervy, but I also love these moments. I love playing in front of big crowds and big opportunities. It’s been fun. I’m representing YouTube golf in a way.”
Dalke has also been awarded a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic, where he’ll play at Detroit Golf Club from July 30 to August 2.
