Bryson DeChambeau WDs from PGA Championship due to hand injury

Bryson DeChambeau has withdrawn from this week’s PGA Championship due to his hand injury. DeChambeau traveled to Southern Hills on Monday afternoon, in hopes of making his first start since undergoing hand surgery after missing the cut at the Masters. The eight-time TOUR winner cited fatigue in his surgically repaired left hand, according to Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis. “I’m close, but it’s just not there yet,” DeChambeau said, according to GOLF.com. “I need to make the decision to protect my health in the long term.” DeChambeau spent time at Southern Hills on Tuesday and Wednesday, including range sessions. He hugged Tiger Woods behind No. 9 green, showing Woods the scar from his surgery. DeChambeau said was proud of making the trip to Southern Hills, as he worked through a rehabilitation process from his April 14 surgery to repair a broken hook of hamate bone in his left hand. At the time, he expressed the goal of returning within two months; a PGA appearance would have marked a timetable ahead of schedule. “Being out of the game is not fun,” DeChambeau told Golf Channel on Tuesday. “It’s not a fun thing for me.” DeChambeau was scheduled to commence the PGA Championship at 8:49 a.m. CT Thursday off No. 10, alongside Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton. He will be replaced by Denny McCarthy. 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 has 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 has 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.

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