COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bryson DeChambeau believes his left wrist has healed enough from last month’s surgery for him to contend at the Memorial Tournament this week, and said he’s in a much better place mentally after dealing with the injury the past seven months.
DeChambeau, 28, played a couple of practice rounds before this month’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills, but withdrew before the tournament because he didn’t believe he was ready.
“I’m actually excited,” DeChambeau said Tuesday. “It’s been a long time coming. Look, do I know I can finish out the week? Yeah. Do I know that I can contend? Yes. Do I know that I can finally enjoy golf again? Yes. That’s a big step for me and my health and my mental state.”
DeChambeau, winner of the 2020 U.S. Open, has made just five starts this season, missing the cut in three of them. He is 219th in the FedEx Cup standings and has fallen to 24th in the Official World Golf Ranking. He won the 2018 Memorial, the second of his eight tour victories, by surviving a three-man playoff.
DeChambeau said he’s returning to the tour with a new perspective.
“Things have changed a lot for me,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about me as a person and my faith and whatnot through golf having [been] stripped away from me. It’s been a difficult time for me the past seven months, not being able to play golf the way I really want to. It still is a little tough every once in a while in the hand to hit golf balls, but for the most part, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back out here. I’m very excited.
“For me, it’s been definitely pretty recent, but realizing that I can’t put everything, all my marbles into one basket, which is golf. There’s more to life than golf.”
DeChambeau underwent surgery on April 14 to repair a fractured hook of the hamate bone in his left wrist. He won’t play next week at the Canadian Open but hopes to be ready for the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, on June 16-19.
“I’m glad I have next week off because I’m going to need that to really recover that hand and get it into a place where I feel like I can start playing golf week in and week out,” DeChambeau said. “But right now, I’m able to have 190 [mph] ball speed consistently without really any pain, and I’ve got control of the golf ball. I’m not forcing anything. I’m excited about that. I’m very, very happy.”