Daniel Berger details back injury after first PGA TOUR round in 18 months

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Daniel Berger was out of bed Thursday morning by 4 a.m. His excitement to return to the PGA TOUR after 18 months away was only part of the reasoning. It was out of necessity, too. It’s part of Berger’s new normal.

The four-time PGA TOUR winner has been MIA from pro golf since the 2022 U.S. Open, taking time away to address debilitating back pain that kept him from doing the most remedial tasks. He consulted multiple doctors, opted not to get surgery and spent more than a year rehabbing to let his body “heal itself.”

And as anyone with back issues will tell you, nothing has been the same since. The first-round 68 that Berger carded at PGA WEST’s Pete Dye Stadium Course embodied all that has changed with the former top-15 player.

“It’s like night and day,” Berger said after his first TOUR round since missing the cut at The Country Club in June of 2022.

At that moment, Berger was speaking about his preparation for a round of golf. It takes several hours — no more tee times at the crack of dawn at his home club. A 9 a.m. tee time now means a 5 a.m. start to prepare his body. He’s also made slight swing changes to take pressure off his back. But the applications of that statement are much broader. When the injury first materialized in December of 2021, he was No. 19 in the world. He was part of a record-setting U.S. Ryder Cup Team just months earlier and was coming off his most consistent season on TOUR, his card locked up for at least two more seasons. He was in every major championship and in position to qualify for all of the 2023 Signature Events. He was unquestionably at the peak of his career.

Now? He’s ranked 664th in the world. The momentum he built is gone. He’s not in any majors or Signature Events. His position in professional golf is a night and day difference.

“I'm kind of starting at ground zero,” he said.

But if Thursday was Berger at the bottom, there should be plenty of optimism that he can regain the form he left with. Berger displayed remarkable control of his game despite only playing 10 rounds in the last six months. He hit every fairway and green on the front nine, making the turn in 4-under. Berger’s reliable cut was back. So, too, was his patented sawed-off finish. In many ways, it looked like he never left. Though, that discounts all he went through to get to Thursday’s round.

The pain began in his lower back at the 2021 Hero World Challenge. He played through it initially, even notching strong results in the process. He finished T5 at The Sentry, fourth at The Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, T13 at THE PLAYERS Championship and T5 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. All the while, he was in pain.

It reached a breaking point after missing the cut at the U.S. Open. As much as he didn’t want to leave the game when he was playing so well, his body didn’t give him any other options. Swinging hurt. Walking hurt. Sitting down hurt.

“Mentally, I couldn't accept being in pain every day,” he said.

So, for the next six months, he rested. He considered surgery and ultimately opted not to. But by the winter of 2022, little had changed. The pain was still there, and it was wearing on him mentally. He still wasn’t golfing, but he couldn’t do anything else. No tennis, beach volleyball, running or time on the boat – everything that made up Berger’s identity, he could not do.

“You have to figure out ways to kind of be in your own mind and be okay with not being able to do the stuff. That was the hardest part,” he said.

At the advice of Luke Donald, Berger went to Canada to be evaluated by Stuart McGill, a spinal specialist. The evaluation in December 2022 revealed Berger had a slight bulge in a lower disc and deep bone sensitivity. McGill set out a plan that just required rehab, not surgery, which appealed to Berger.

“Western medicine, I think, tends to lead you on more of that path (to surgery),” Berger said. “I think if you don't mess with your body, it finds a way to heal itself. In the beginning, I was trying all these different things and not knowing which one was helping me and which one was making me worse. So, finally, when I just cut the variables down to one or two, and I could find out, okay, this is what made me feel better, that's when I started to really start to stack good days on each other.”

It was a slow progression. After going seven or eight months without touching a club, it began with just 10 balls a day. He'd add a few more if he woke up the next day without pain. Slowly but surely, Berger nursed himself back to help. He even felt good enough to return for a TOUR event in the fall. Then, he had a setback. “It’s not a linear kind of recovery,” he said.

That recovery brought him to The American Express in La Quinta, California, this week. He thought about delaying his return longer, but eventually “you kind of just have to rip the band-aid off,” he said. Berger was pleasantly surprised with what he uncovered. “If I play like this for three more days, then we'll be in good position.”

And just like that, after 18 months away, Berger was back. Ready to pick up where he left off.