One by one, the questions marks entering next week’s PGA Championship are being answered. Phil Mickelson is out, still not ready to face the public in the wake of his Saudi comments. Harris English and Paul Casey, both dealing with injuries, have also sent their regrets. Sungjae Im won’t be in Tulsa, either, after testing positive last week in South Korea with COVID. Tiger Woods, however, was at Southern Hills on Sunday and appears ready to compete next week.
There remains one player, though, whose status is still not entirely clear: Bryson DeChambeau. The eight-time PGA Tour winner had surgery to repair the hamate bone in his left wrist on April 14 and was expected to be sidelined for upwards of two months. But the 28-year-old had the bandages/cast removed more than a week ago and on Sunday posted a video of him hitting drives that suggested his recovery time might not be so long after all.
But still, could he really be well enough to compete this week at the PGA? According to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, he’s going to give it a try:
You might recall DeChambeau’s game was a wreck prior to the surgery. He had played on the PGA Tour twice in January, finishing T-25 in the no-cut Sentry Tournament of Champions and missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open. He then played in the Saudi International, but had to withdraw before the second round when he exascerbated the wrist injury while playing ping pong. DeChambeau took the rest of February off to heal and returned to play at the WGC-Dell Match Play in March, but failed to get out of group play, losing all three of his matches. He then missed the cut at the Valero Texas Open and the Masters before deciding to heed his doctors’ advice and have the surgery.