TULSA—Bryson DeChambeau’s return to golf will have to wait.
DeChambeau, who attempted to come back from recent hand surgery at this week’s PGA Championship, has decided he is not ready for competition, dropping out Tuesday from the Southern Hills field.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion underwent a procedure on his hamate bone in his left hand following this year’s Masters. He was expected to miss the PGA Championship with the U.S. Open at Brookline circled as a possible return date. However, DeChambeau tried to return at Southern Hills, testing his hand to see if it could withstand play. But after a few days in Tulsa DeChambeau realized his performance was not up to his standards.
“I’m close, but it’s just not there yet,” DeChambeau told Golf Magazine. “I need to make the decision to protect my health in the long term.”
Prior to surgery DeChambeau revealed at Augusta National that he suffered a torn left hip labrum and a hairline fracture in his left hand. According to DeChambeau the hip injury originally happened when he began his distance odyssey two years ago after slipping on concrete while he felt something “pop” in his hand last fall. Both injuries were aggravated at the Saudi International during a ping-pong match against Sergio Garcia and Joaquin Niemann.
“We were on some marble floors, and they just wiped it,” DeChambeau explained at Augusta National. “And me not paying attention, I ‘Charlie Brown’d’ myself and went horizontal and then hit my left hip and my hand at the same time, and that really just took me out. That’s really when it just got to the point where I couldn’t even grip the golf club. I tried to play that week, and it was impossible. I was not even gripping with my left hand that week. I was like, this is dumb, I have to go take care of my body first and get it right.”
DeChambeau went on to explain that doctors advised him to sit out for four months; instead DeChambeau returned in less than two in hopes to make a run at the Masters. Alas, DeChambeau’s results since returning from injury were not promising. He was eliminated in the round-robin stage of the WGC-Dell Match Play, missed the cut at the Valero Texas Open by six shots and turned in a 76 and 80 to miss the weekend at the Masters. Things weren’t much better earlier in the year, finishing a distant T-25 in the limited-field Sentry Tournament of Champions and missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open.
DeChambeau will be replaced in the field by Denny McCarthy.