If you watched the tournament on TV yesterday you know that DJ was tied for first place and playing in the last group with Ben Curtis. You also know he had some problems with back spasms as it was clearly covered in pregame and tournament information passed out.
Let me give you some background on what caused it and ultimately what happened.
Two weeks ago, when DJ decided to skip the tournament in Puerto Rico with plans on playing the following week at the Transitions tournament. He took the week off, went home and on Tuesday morning he was out fishing with one of his friends and they were catching red fish, catching a bunch of them. He told me what happened was one of them he caught was kind of small, so he took it off the hook and decided to release him. He bent over to drop it in the water and his back spasmed on him and he could barely sit up straight.
They went in immediately, got in with an orthopedic surgeon and got checked out. They x-rayed him and said that the spine was fine, didn't look like any problems and the only thing wrong was that he'd had a back spasm or maybe strained a muscle, possibly even tore one.
They put him on rehab and he saw a trainer every day for the rest of that week. At the end of the week they decided it was still too tender and achy. He skipped the Transitions tournament in Tampa to come back here at Bay Hill. He likes Bay Hill, he's played well here in the past and the hope was win Bay Hill and or Houston next week and he's in the Masters.
So he came back here, felt pretty well. He's been getting stretched out every day in the trailer by the trainers.
Monday and Tuesday I was with him. He had no problems and was swinging well. We tightened up his swing, tightened up his finish, walked a whole round, plenty of practice on the range, putting green, chipping and pitching, no problems with the back. It was a little achy and tender, but for the most part it was fine.
I spoke with him on Thursday night and again on Friday not after he shot his two really good rounds. The trainers were keeping him fairly loose. After two rounds like that he was really optimistic about a great Saturday and Sunday and felt without a doubt he could win.
This morning I showed up and met him in the dining room for breakfast. After breakfast he said he'd meet me on the putting green in 30 or 40 minutes. He was going to the trailer and get stretched out. So I was out there with Todd, his caddy, and my brother Ken and he came walking up and said, “Dad, I don't know if I'm going to be able to play today. The trainer working on my seemed to aggravate things and my back is as tight as could be and killing me. There's a good chance I might have to withdraw. I don't know if I can swing.”
So he putted around for about five minutes, then he said, “No use waiting around here. If I can putt it's not that bad. Let's see if I can hit some balls.”
As we walked over to the range I said, “O.K. Here's the plan. This could be serious. If it's torn muscles or severely strained muscles, you got to be really careful and really think about that if you go out there and play and force the issue, you could hurt yourself worse. Instead of a few weeks rehab to get your back strong and not hurting anymore, it could be three or four months or cost you the rest of the year. I want you to think hard about this.”
When we got to the range we started hitting little baby shots, do bops. We started with the pitching wedge and worked up before he put any real energy and power in the shot. He hit a few shots and everything was good. I mentioned his might was to open up his forward foot a little bit. Then he could clear his hips quicker and stand up quicker and reduce stress on the back.
He said that felt better. He opened it up 30 degrees more than he usually does. After about 15 shots I told him to take it up a little. He took it up with his 8 iron and all of a sudden I could see, “whap,” he just let one rip. When he worked up to his driver, I told him, “Deej, if I'd just walked up here and seen you hitting those balls I wouldn't know there was a problem because the swing darn good, nice and powerful. The energy is good, the finish is good. Everything about it is really good and right where I know you are with power.”
When it was over he said he was going to try and gut it out.
So he did. He hit the ball fairly well. Looking at the scores today, you saw the scores were quite high. The wind was really blowing, swirling around and a minimum of a constant 10 mph with gusts. It got stronger as the afternoon wore on. He had five good shots on the green where it just trickled over into the back bunker. Over all he got to three over par.
By 15 he'd work his way back to one over par for the day. At the time he was actually in fourth place. He was doing really good. He brought back a good day, making it decent, especially for the fact that nobody was running away from him, so he still had a chance to win. On 16 he blocked it a little bit right off the tee, hit a good shot for the green, which was about 200 yards over water. The ball cut just a bit because the wind was blowing left to right pretty hard, and he just ran off the fringe in the short rough The ball was sitting there pretty good. He had shot across the green, right at the mound where it just up to a second level. It hit hard off the level and kicked hard and he came up about 8 feet short. He hit a putt that went a little too long that went about three feet by the hole, missed it and makes bogey when he had a good shot at making birdie. That was a real knife in the heart on that hole. He starts going up the ladder the wrong way.
On 17 the wind just slapped it down like a Whiffle ball. His putt nibbled the hole and went out. So he goes bogey, bogey on 16 and 17 and made a good par at 18. Right now he's tied for 12th.
He's a little sore and a little achy. Right now he's planning on Houston. We're going to sit down after the round (Sunday), see how he feels, how he played and make a good decision. Right now I don't want to push the envelope. Maybe a few more weeks for rehab and hopefully he'll be in good shape to play the Heritage at Harbour Town which, as you know, is our old stomping ground. I was director of instruction there and DJ played the course of about 9 years. That might be the safe avenue.
That's the scoop on what happened. He actually hit the ball pretty good. You wouldn't have known he was really hurting by the way he walked but when you him squat down to tee up, you could see his back was tender. We'll make a decision after he plays.
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