WRIST OF FATE
Bryson testing injury to see if he can play PGA
TULSA, Okla. — We know Tiger Woods is playing this week’s PGA Championship and Phil Mickelson isn’t.
Bryson DeChambeau’s status isn’t quite as cut and dried.
The 28-year-old DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion at Winged Foot, arrived to Southern Hills late in the day Monday and is testing his surgically repaired left wrist and hand to see if he’ll be fit to compete this week.
DeChambeau has been out of action since early April. He missed the cut at the Masters, shooting 12-over then had April 14 surgery on his left wrist to repair a fractured piece of his hamate bone.
“On my way to Southern Hills CC,” DeChambeau tweeted Monday. “Going to test how I am feeling over these next couple days and decide on whether to compete. Looking forward to being in Tulsa.”
On May 14, a month removed from surgery, DeChambeau tweeted a video of himself hitting a driver into a net in his backyard.
If DeChambeau decides he’s unable to play before Thursday’s opening round, Joel Dahman is the next alternate and would replace him in the field.
➤ Brooks Koepka was an hour late for his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday because he locked his keys in his courtesy car, which was already running with his golf clubs in the back.
Later, he poked fun at himself for it.
“Only me, man,” Koepka said. “It’s like a theme of car troubles. Run out of gas [at home recently] and then this. I’m just glad it didn’t happen on Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.”
➤ Eyebrows have been raised this week at Southern Hills by the exorbitant prices at the concession stands that the PGA of America is charging. Justin Thomas saw some tweets that some beers were costing $18 and $19 and reacted incredulously.
Tuesday he said he saw the prices and, “I was blown away.’’
He called the prices “a bummer.’’
“You want people to come to the tournament,’’ Thomas said. “I was just blown away because I’ve never seen a beer $18 or $19 in my life. Guys have been talking about it, so I had to stand up for the fans. Felt like it was right.’’
➤ Rory McIlroy said he prepared for this week’s PGA Championship before he arrived on site by watching a fly-over video of Southern Hills, which he’d never visited.
“I think Golf Digest had like a few flyovers of the golf course, so just tried to get online,’’ he said. “I tried to dig up some footage of last year’s Senior PGA, but it was pretty limited. I just tried to find some stuff online just to get a feel for what the golf course was like and what Gil [Hanse, who recently touched up the course] tried to do with it and what sort of philosophy he was trying to use and what sort of shots he wanted guys to try to play.
“It sort of seemed pretty apparent that this is an approach shot and short game [course], like iron play and chipping is going to be really important this week.’’
➤ PGA of American CEO Seth Waugh was asked Tuesday if a player opted to play in the Greg Norman-led LIV Golf league event would be banned from playing in the PGA Championship next year.
“We’ve got a lot of time between now and Oak Hill [the site of the 2023 PGA], and I think we all have to sort of take a deep breath, see how it plays out, and what the ecosystem looks like at that point,’’ Waugh said. “We’re a fan of the current ecosystem and world golf ranking system and everything else that goes into creating the best field in golf. Right now, I don’t know what it’ll look like next year. We don’t think this [Saudi league] is good for the game. We have our own bylaws that we will follow towards those fields.’’
Asked if those bylaws preclude letting players play if he plays on a rival tour, Waugh said, “Not specifically, but our bylaws do say that you have to be a recognized member of a recognized tour in order to be a PGA member somewhere, and therefore eligible to play.’’