ORLANDO — It stands to reason that as artfully as Daniel Berger has become at getting hurt, he also is rather adept at bouncing back from physical challenges.
He submitted the latest example Thursday with an impeccable opening round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Calling it one of his three best rounds of his professional career, Berger assembled a bogey-free nine-under 63 at sunbaked Bay Hill Club to jump out to an early three-stroke clubhouse lead.
Berger, 32, would admit that returning to greens to which he is accustomed as a Florida native certainly was a factor. And getting ever more comfortable with his switch to a left-hand-low putting grip at the behest of instructor Phil Kenyon helped. But mostly he is just getting back into swing after suffering a bewildering finger injury at last August’s BMW Championship.
“I think the biggest thing for me is just getting in a bit of a rhythm,” said Berger, who ranked second in the early going in strokes gained/approach and made 90 feet of putts, a lethal combination. “I missed all of the fall. I broke my finger at the BMW, so I took basically four months off. Then when you come back, you’re just kind of getting back into the flow of things and getting into your routine. And kind of, I’ve really played not really that poorly, just haven’t had the results. So you just kind of keep doing the same things and good things will come. So that’s kind of where I feel like I’m at.”
The injury was of the freak variety. He was on the 14th hole at Caves Valley Golf Club when he felt a sting in his finger hitting a 7-iron. He finished the round but withdrew the next day. He figured on four to five weeks of recovery in a splint but instead it took three months because of the location of the injury in the middle of the digit.
Berger didn’t return until the RSM Classic, the final fall event on the 2025 tour schedule. He hoped to play his way into form on the West Coast at the start of the new season, but other than an encouraging T-6 in January at the Sony Open in Hawaii, the four-time winner saw his game stall.
He went into overdrive at Bay Hill, however. In just his fourth appearance in the event, he beat his best previous round by five shots.
“I’ve been playing well. It’s like one shot here, one shot there that kind of doesn’t go your way,” he said. “And even last week [at the Cognizant Classic] I played pretty well and just didn’t quite score the way I wanted to. Really, it’s just freeing it up and enjoying it. Coming out here and just doing what you love to do and not thinking about the results and just sticking to the process that you know works for yourself.”
Berger has had his share of setbacks. He missed 18 months from the 2022 U.S. Open to the start of the 2024 season rehabilitating a bad back while avoiding surgery. He also has suffered wrist and thumb injuries. So convalescence is really nothing new for him. But it does get old.
At times this year he has eschewed hitting certain shots from trouble spots for fear of re-injuring the finger. He did have a scare at the WM Phoenix Open where he caught a shot heavy and thought he had broken the finger again. Fortunately, the pain cleared up. And now it appears the fog is lifting on his game.
“I think any time you take an extended period of time off it’s just difficult,” Berger said. “Players get better and you’re sitting on the sidelines and you have to ramp yourself back up and get back into those competitive environments. So that took me a little bit of time. Then I spent some time working on some technical stuff, which, like a swing change, a putting change is the same thing, you have to do it enough times repetitively to feel confident.”
An injured golfer can be dangerous sometimes, as the saying goes. But a healthy one is likely more dangerous.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
