Spieth catches fire, snags lead in Phoenix

Questions about whether some of the game’s biggest names would compete in the PGA Championship have been answered in recent days. But one remains. Bryson DeChambeau may make his return to competitive golf at this week’s PGA Championship. It would be his first tournament since undergoing hand surgery after missing the cut at the Masters. “On my way to Southern Hills CC,” DeChambeau tweeted Monday afternoon. “Going to test how I am feeling over these next couple days and decide on whether to compete. Looking forward to being in Tulsa.” DeChambeau underwent surgery April 14 to repair a broken hook of hamate bone in his left hand. He said in a social media post after the procedure that he would take “the appropriate time needed to rest and recover” and would return “within the next two months.” The PGA Championship’s first round comes 35 days after the procedure. DeChambeau also has been dealing with a torn labrum in his left hip. The injuries forced him to miss both the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, where he was the defending champion, and THE PLAYERS. Against his doctors’ orders, he played the two events preceding the Masters before teeing it up in the year’s first major. DeChambeau said he first felt a “pop” in his hand last November and that he aggravated the injury when he slipped and fell while playing table tennis earlier this year. He has played just six times in 2022, either missing the cut or withdrawing in four of those events. He also finished T58 in the 64-man World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play and T25 in the 38-man Sentry Tournament of Champions. He’s fallen from fifth to 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking and his position in both the TOUR Championship and Presidents Cup are both in peril. DeChambeau, who’s qualified for East Lake in each of the last four seasons, currently ranks 219th in the FedExCup standings. He is 24th in the U.S. Presidents Cup standings after playing on the last three U.S. international teams, including the United States’ record-setting roster last year. DeChambeau started chipping April 30 while stitches were still in his left hand and posted a video Saturday that showed him hitting balls into a net with a launch monitor showing 192 mph ball speed.

Click here to read the full article…

ATLANTA – Brooks Koepka has withdrawn from the TOUR Championship with a left wrist injury. Koepka was 3 over par on the day and 1 under for the tournament when he withdrew after a par at the 12th hole. Video showed him releasing the club and shaking out his left arm after hitting his tee shot at the par-3 11th hole, and buckling over, his left arm on his leg, after hitting a fairway bunker shot. An eight-time PGA TOUR winner, including four major championship titles, Koepka won the Waste Management Phoenix Open for the second time earlier this season and came to Atlanta looking to move up from 20th in the FedExCup. He is one of the six players to qualify on points to play on U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Steve Stricker’s team that will take on the Europeans at Whistling Straits in three weeks. Koepka will receive the prize money for finishing 30th in the 30-man field at East Lake.

Click here to read the full article…

Click here to read the full article…