Bryson DeChambeau. David Cannon

By Joel Beall
Bryson DeChambeau’s return to golf will have to wait.

DeChambeau, who practised this week at Southern Hills in hopes of coming back from recent hand surgery at the PGA Championship, has decided he is not ready for competition, dropping out of the field.

The 2020 US Open champion underwent a procedure on his hamate bone in his left hand following the Masters last month. He was expected to miss the PGA Championship, with the US Open at Brookline circled as a possible return date. However, DeChambeau tried to travel to Southern Hills and test his hand to see if it could withstand play. But after a few days in Tulsa, DeChambeau realised 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. Last autumn, he felt something “pop” in his hand after slipping on concrete. 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 Browned’ 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. DeChambeau’s results, however, after 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 PGA field by Denny McCarthy.

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