Bryson DeChambeau has decided to withdraw from this week’s PGA Championship as he continues his recovery from surgery to repair a bone in his left wrist, with the 28-year-old insisting that over a four-day tournament his wrist “is just not able to hold up”,
DeChambeau, who has been limited to six worldwide starts this year because of wrist and hip injuries, underwent surgery on his left hand days after missing the cut at the Masters last month. One month later, he posted a video of his full swing – seemingly at full force – hitting golf balls into a net in his back yard.
The big-hitting American, whose prodigious length off the tee has prompted many to wonder whether he is pushing his body too hard, played a practice round at Southern Hills on Tuesday with a wrap on his left wrist.
“I didn’t think it was going to be the right decision for me to play this week,” DeChambeau told Golf Channel. “For me it was going to be a stretch. This week I’m unfortunately not going to play but I want to give someone else a chance who was fully prepared and ready to go out there and be healthy.
“I could play a couple of rounds, but considering I was doing half days and feeling fatigued and tired, four days is a big stretch for me right now. Endurance-wise my wrist is just not able to hold up, it’s still swollen. I’ve got to give it more time.”
DeChambeau said before the Masters that he had ignored the advice of his doctors and taken a “huge risk” to compete at Augusta National after being sidelined for six weeks with wrist and hip problems. He posted a 12-over total in the first two rounds in Georgia.
The world No 22 DeChambeau had been scheduled to play the first two rounds of the year’s second major in the company of the Englishman Tyrrell Hatton and Max Homa and will be replaced in the field by Denny McCarthy.