News & Tours
Bryson DeChambeau to undergo hand surgery; likely to miss PGA Championship (UPDATE: DeChambeau undergoes successful surgery)
Jamie Squire
Bryson DeChambeau is opting for surgery on his injured left hand.
The news, which was first reported by Morning Read's Bob Harig, was confirmed by DeChambeau's agent, Brett Falkoff, to Golf Digest.
"Bryson will undergo surgery on his hamate bone in his left hand," Falkoff said. "We look forward to a smooth recovery and rehab process. Bryson looks forward to returning as soon as he is cleared to do so."
At last week Masters, DeChambeau revealed 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 after slipping on concrete while he felt something “pop” in his hand last fall. 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 Brown'd’ 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.
However, since DeChambeau returned from injury the results have not been 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.
Recover from surgery on the hamate bone hovers around 10-to-12 weeks, a timeline that will likely force DeChambeau out of May's PGA Championship and puts the U.S. Open in doubt.
DeChambeau has fallen to No. 19 in the Official World Golf Ranking and enters the week 217th in the FedEx Cup standings.
UPDATE: A day after it was reported that Bryson DeChambeau would have surgery on his left hand, the eight-time PGA Tour winner announced on Instagram that the surgery was complete and that it was performed by Dr. Thomas Graham at the Kettering Health Main Campus, in Kettering, Ohio.
The procedure repaired the hamate bone. The hamate is one of eight bones that forms part of the wrist joint.
"I made attempts to play through this injury at three recent events, including the Masters, but this is typically an injury that requires surgical treatment," DeChambeau wrote on Instagram. "Through continued discomfort from the fracture, it has caused me to alter my grip and swing, resulting in my inability to compete at golf’s highest level. This has not been easy physically and mentally for me."
Last week at the Masters, DeChambeau, 28, said that he had a torn hairline fracture in his left hand as well as a torn left hip labrum. The hip injury started to bother him when he started to train for distance gains two years ago, he said. The hand injury, DeChambeau said, came last fall when he slipped on concrete and heard something "pop" in his hand.
"For now, I will be taking the appropriate time needed to rest and recover from this procedure and look forward to competing at the highest level within the next two months," DeChambeau said.
This guarantees that DeChambeau will miss the PGA Championship next month at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla. The U.S. Open, which DeChambeau won in 2020 at Winged Foot, is June 16-19 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.