[PHOTO: NurPhoto]
Daniel Berger will make his return from an 18-month injury layoff this week at the PGA Tour’s American Express tournament.
Berger, 30, has not played in an official PGA Tour event since missing the cut at the 2022 US Open at Brookline. He has been tending to an issue with his lower disc, along with deep bone sensitivity, problems that made playing golf an excruciating endeavour. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, Berger said he had to take ice baths before he could tee it up and that something as simple as sitting in a car brought pain.
“That was the worst six months of my life,” Berger told the AP last May. “I’ve had a pretty easy life. I play golf for a living – it’s not that stressful. But there was a point that I would have given up golf for the rest of my life not to feel like that.”
Berger is a four-time PGA Tour winner, and appeared at the 2017 Presidents Cup and 2021 Ryder Cup for the American team. Before his abbreviated 2022 season he was coming off back-to-back $US4 million campaigns and was inside the world’s top 25. However, his absence has dropped Berger outside the top 600 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and because he still has status as a tournament winner through this season he won’t be competing on a medical exemption.
The American Express begins later this week over three courses. Among the commitments are world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Jason Day, Justin Thomas and Min Woo Lee making his debut as a PGA Tour member.
