Kevin Stadler makes first PGA TOUR start since 2015

JACKSON, Miss. – Kevin Stadler visited more than a dozen doctors in the three years since his last PGA TOUR start. He pondered retirement when he couldn’t find answers for the blinding pain that would shoot through his left hand.

“It’s over and done with now, thankfully, but it (took) a long time to find an answer,” Stadler said after a first-round 70 at the Sanderson Farms Championship.

The pain started after the best year of his career. He won for the first time at the 2014 Waste Management Phoenix Open and finished eighth in his Masters debut. He started the following season with a solid performance in Las Vegas, shooting four sub-par rounds to finish 28th in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. It remains his last made cut on the PGA TOUR.

A broken hamate bone was the problem. For a long time, the fracture was too tiny to be diagnosed, though. An MRI after a failed comeback attempt on the Web.com Tour last year revealed that the bone was now 75 percent broken.

Stadler had surgery last August. By May, he could practice and play without hesitation. He made the first of three rehab starts on the Web.com Tour in June. He will play this season with a major medical extension. He has 26 events to earn 454 FedExCup points or $717,890 to remain exempt for the remainder of the season.

“I walk through the locker room and feel like I don’t know three-quarters of the people in there,” Stadler said. “It’s my first time to this venue. It feels like my first year out here. It’s been four years since I’ve played pain-free.”

Three weeks after the Shriners, he had to withdraw two holes into the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. He returned at Kapalua but had to quit after the second round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions. He tried to play through the pain at the Masters, where he shot 77-74, and John Deere Classic (MC).

He waited two years to play his next event. He could “slap it around” a couple times per week at home, but his hand couldn’t withstand the constant repetitions of practice.

“I just tried to not go any more insane than I already am,” he said.

He thought his next start, the Web.com Tour’s Digital Ally Open in July 2017, may be his last. He had to withdraw after a first-round 72 because of pain that he compared to an “explosion” in his hand.

“I still didn’t have any answers for what was wrong,” he said. “I’d been dealing with doctors for 2 ½ years at that point. It was feeling better, but I look back and laugh that I thought that was better. I played one day and it was back to the pain I felt on day one. I thought at that point that was probably going to be it.”

Little did he know that an answer was around the corner. He’s understandably rusty but the University of Southern California alum is hoping his game will be in shape in time for his beloved West Coast events.

“This is what I’ve done my whole life,” Stadler said. “Just getting out and playing golf for real, this is great.”