DeChambeau Withdraws From The Arnold Palmer Invitational

Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau has pulled out of this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational after failing to recover from injury. The 2020 US Open winner has only played three events this year after a succession of niggling injuries, but he was expected to be in the field at Bay Hill.

However, he took to Instagram on Monday afternoon to announce that he’d made the tough decision to withdraw and keep working on his fitness in the hope he will be able to play The Players Championship next week.

“It’s a hard decision I have to make. I’m going to have to unfortunately not play this week,” he said. “I feel like it’s too short a time for me to get back to playing 100% capacity. Right now I’m like 90% and I don’t want to go out there and hurt myself even more and not be 100% ready for the rest of the season. I don’t want to come back early and then have to take more time off.

“At this current point in time I’ve got to take another week off and I’m going to try and get back and play for The Players but as of right now I just can’t risk having it re-aggrevate. This has been one of the hardest moments of my life because I’m not able to do much and although I can hit some golf balls, it’s not fully comfortable. It’s a bit frustrating, I want to get out there as soon as possible but it’s just not ready yet.”

Last week, DeChambeau's agent, Brett Falkoff, told Sports Illustrated that he "remains committed to the API and will do everything possible to defend at Bay Hill. He will continue to rehab over the coming days. Without any setbacks, we are hopeful he is able to compete." 

DeChambeau won the API by one shot from England’s Lee Westwood last year. He had been linked with joining the rumoured Saudi Super League, but last week he came out and committed his future to the PGA Tour.