Will Bryson DeChambeau make his return at WGC-Dell Match Play? He’s in the star-studded field — for now
Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since the Farmers Insurance Open in late January, insisting that a wrist injury — and not swirling rumors about his potential involvement in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series — has kept him from competing.
On Friday, however, he was unveiled as one of the 64 entrants in the upcoming WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play at Austin Country Club, part of another powerful field.
DeChambeau, who currently sits 12th in the Official World Golf Ranking, was also expected to play in the Players Championship last week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, but dropped out just a few days before the tournament was set to begin, telling Golfweek via text that he was “almost ready,” and added that he was “getting ready for something big” with “many plans in the works.”
If he does indeed take part, DeChambeau will join a field that includes the world’s top five players — Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, and former Texas Longhorn Scottie Scheffler, who finished runner-up at the event last year.
Among others in the star-studded field are Jordan Spieth, defending champ Billy Horschel, Justin Thomas, and Dustin Johnson, who captured the title in Austin back in 2017.
The highest-ranking player not in the field is Cameron Smith, who now sits at No. 6 by virtue of his victory at the Players. Smith informed the PGA Tour he was pulling out of the event to spend time with his family members.
Statement on behalf of Cameron Smith regarding next week’s World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play pic.twitter.com/fKLXnTiNL8
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 16, 2022
Others who won’t be taking part include No. 7 Rory McIlroy as well as 2021 Masters champ Hideki Matsuyama (No. 11), who also withdrew right before the Players with a back injury. Harris English (No. 22) and Phil Mickelson (No. 45) are the others in the top 69 not making the trek to Central Texas.
Mickelson is taking time away from the game to “work on being the man I want to be” in the face of disparaging comments he made about the PGA Tour to Alan Shipnuck of the Fire Pit Collective.
“The Tour likes to pretend it’s a democracy, but it’s really a dictatorship,” Mickelson told Shipnuck. “They divide and conquer. The concerns of the top players are very different from the guys who are lower down on the money list, but there’s a lot more of them. They use the top guys to make their own situation better, but the top guys don’t have a say.”
Like DeChambeau, Mickelson also hasn’t played since the Farmers, an event in which the 51-year-old missed the cut. He also missed the cut the previous week at the American Express.
A total of 11 players will make their debut in Austin, including Sam Burns, Tom Hoge, and Lucas Herbert.
