This week’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi marks Daniel Berger’s twenty second begin on the PGA Tour in 2024. Nevertheless it has not been a simple season for the previous Ryder Cup star.
He missed 11 cuts and has posted zero top-10s thus far. His greatest end got here on the CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Might, when he tied for thirteenth. But, Berger feels lucky sufficient simply to be enjoying after a again harm troubled him for practically 18 months. The 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline was his final skilled begin till this previous January, when he teed it up at The American Specific.
Now, on the Nation Membership of Jackson, Berger is again the place he belongs: contending at a PGA Tour occasion by way of 36 holes. He fired a 7-under 65 on Thursday and adopted that up with one other 65 on Friday to sit down at 14-under on the halfway level. Berger briefly held the lead at one level however now trails Beau Hossler by a stroke.
After his second spherical, the four-time PGA Tour winner supplied a sensational admission.
“That is in all probability the primary time I can say I’m 100%,” Berger stated after his spherical.
“The final couple weeks, I felt my greatest and performed a bunch of golf at dwelling with the blokes, and I’m hitting it additional and simply feeling like myself extra. That’s translating into what I’m seeing now.”
What he’s seeing is large. He’s at the moment second among the many discipline in general strokes gained and has but to file a bogey.
“I’m simply making an attempt to have some enjoyable and revel in myself,” Berger added.
Daniel Berger has the lead in Jackson.
LFG!!!!
A win for Danny can be an INCREDIBLE story of redemption and one in every of THE tales of the yr. pic.twitter.com/1pgOvDhPfB
— Jack Milko (@jack_milko) October 4, 2024
“Appears to be working up to now. My dad was out right here earlier with me this week, so it has felt like a traditional week at dwelling. That’s often once I play my greatest.”
When you’ve got adopted golf over the previous few years, the game has been turned the other way up. The rise of LIV Golf has splintered the game whereas forcing the PGA Tour to make some adjustments, comparable to creating Signature Occasions to make sure prime golfers play alongside one another.
However Berger has not performed in a Signature Occasion as a result of he missed practically two years. That pressured him to play in some unfamiliar tournaments; then once more, not less than he’s wholesome sufficient to take action.
“At first, it was extraordinarily troublesome,” Berger stated.
“The panorama of the golf world has modified from once I took day without work to the place I’m now. The tournaments that I’m in—I wasn’t on this yr, however I might’ve been in earlier than. So I’m enjoying new occasions I by no means performed earlier than, going locations I by no means had on my schedule, altering golf coaches, and having new caddies. You add all this variation, and it simply turns into difficult. I’ve simply tried to dig in, be affected person, and benefit from the course of.”
Maybe that explains why Berger struggled through the first half of 2024.
“Once you miss practically two years, you don’t come again and see rapid success, it may be difficult,” Berger added.
“Now I’m simply having enjoyable, and that’s once I play my greatest.”
Hopefully, the perfect for Berger has but to come back.
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. Make sure to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You possibly can observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as properly.
