Life without golf wasn’t so bad.
For two months, Daniel Berger didn’t pick up a club. For the first time in a decade, the 26-year-old was forced to take a sabbatical from golf following a wrist injury.
So, he bought a boat. He vacationed. He enjoyed lazy, stress-free days, funded by the game that has given him so much.
But eventually, life on a boat grew stale.
“The first month was awesome. I haven’t taken a month off from competitive golf in 10 years,” Berger said Friday. “And then after that I got pretty bored. I was pretty ready to go.”
After shooting a second-round 66 at the PGA Championship to enter the weekend at 4-under, Berger has put himself in position for two of the most adrenaline-filled days he’s ever experienced.
“I mean, listen, it’s a major championship, and you have to perform, and you have to play 72 great holes of golf,” said Berger, who has three top-12 major finishes. “Halfway through, I’ve done that.”
Last year on Long Island, Berger was one great day away from his first major victory. At the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the Florida native shot a third-round 66 to seize a share of the lead, but tumbled from the leaderboard with a final-round 73 and finished sixth.
At Bethpage Black, Berger knows how quickly anyone can fall from contention.
“The challenge is going to be the next 36 holes, and it’s not going to get any easier,” Berger said. “So I’ve just got to stay patient and do the things that I did the last couple of days.”
The past two days represent what Berger could barely imagine when he was wearing a brace for nearly a month, when it wasn’t until about six weeks ago the 2015 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year finally felt at full strength.
“Things of this nature can take up to a year,” said Berger, whose break began in September. “But it’s finally healthy. I feel like I can do the things that I need to do that I wasn’t able to do towards the end of last year, where now I can put in the reps that I wasn’t able to do before.”
Berger, who has two career PGA Tour victories and was part of the U.S.’ 2017 Presidents Cup-winning squad, registered only one top-10 finish last season, and ended the year ranked 60th in the world, but recently began working with a new swing coach (Cameron McCormick) who he credits with reviving his game.
Despite entering with 200/1 odds to win at Bethpage, Berger finessed his way into a tie for fourth place with his improved short game, resulting in just one bogey Friday.
“That was really the difference,” Berger said of McCormick. “Around the greens, it’s just been learning some different variety of shots that I didn’t have. I never knew that I had some of the ability that I had around the greens that I feel like I was able to bring out in the last couple of weeks.”
