DUBLIN, Ohio – Bryson DeChambeau is a go.
Finally.
And he thinks he can contend in this week’s Memorial at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
The 2020 U.S. Open champion and 2018 Memorial winner has not played since the Masters in April, where he shot his worst career tournament score at Augusta National – an 80 – in the second round to miss the cut. He withdrew from the PGA Championship two weeks ago and from the Charles Schwab Challenge last week due to swelling in his left hand following wrist surgery on the fracture hook of the hamate.
“It’s been a long time coming,” DeChambeau told the Golf Channel on Tuesday. “Look, do I know I can finish out the week? Yeah. Do I know that I can contend? Yes. Do I know that I can finally enjoy golf again? Yes.
“That’s a big step for me and my health and my mental state.”
DeChambeau, the winner of eight PGA Tour titles, has fallen to No. 24 in the world. But he thinks the time away from the game will prove beneficial.
“Things have changed a lot for me,” he said. “I’ve learned so much about me as a person and my faith and whatnot through golf having been stripped away from me. It’s been a difficult time for me the past seven months not being able to play golf the way I really want to. It still is a little tough every once in a while in the hand to hit golf balls, but for the most part I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back out here. I’m very excited.”
The change in attitude came recently as he realized he can’t put “all of my marbles into one basket, which is golf.”
“There’s more to life than golf,” he said. “It’s been definitely eye-opening for me to have a close relationship with the Lord and just more importantly being happy with myself, too, and more importantly getting closer to him. For me that’s something that’s changed in my life that I’m very, very happy with, and I’m going to continue to fight, continue to be my absolute best out here on the golf course and hopefully inspire some kids along the way and do my due diligence like He wants me to.”
DeChambeau said he will take next week off and hopes to play in the U.S. Open the following week.
“I’m glad I have next week off because I’m going to need that to really recover that hand and get it into a place where I feel like I can start playing golf week in and week out,” he said. “But right now I’m able to have 190 ball speed consistently without really any pain and I’ve got control of the golf ball, I’m not forcing anything. I’m excited about that. I’m very, very happy.”