After years of pain and recovery, Daniel Berger returns with a 68 at American Express

Daniel Berger will take three more days like he experienced in the opening round of The American Express.

Making his first PGA Tour start since missing the cut in the 2022 U.S. Open because of a back injury, Berger shot 4-under 68 at the Pete Dye Stadium Course.

“Leading up to this week I was kind of on the edge of whether I was ready to play or not. Then you kind of just have to rip the band-aid off after that amount of time and just get out there,” he said after his round. “I actually played really well today, which was nice. I really didn’t hit any bad shots.”

Berger told The Associated Press last May that he was diagnosed with a slight bulge in a lower disc and deep bone sensitivity, and he had been following a rehab program created by Canadian professor Stuart McGill, an expert in biomechanics of the spine.

The 30-year-old said on Thursday that while he never underwent surgery, it was a lengthy process of trial and error to figure out the proper path to healing.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had back pain before, but you use your back for everything, so sitting, standing, doing any type of daily chore sucks,” he told reporters in California. “Again, you find a diagnosis, you find the treatment, you figure out what to do, and the crazy thing is the body finds a way to heal itself if you don’t mess it up, so that was the biggest key for me.”

Berger had hoped to play in the fall but said he suffered a three-month setback, leading to his return to the scoring-friendly AmEx. He had six birdies and two bogeys in Round 1 to sit six shots off the 18-hole lead.

“Obviously, this is great place to start,” he said. “The conditions are favorable, and the wind is not up, and the greens are pure. So, I figured if there was any place to start a season, this was it.”

Though he returns will full Tour status, he also does so at No. 664 in the world (down from No. 25 when he last played), and not yet qualified for any of the majors or signature events.

Berger said he’s starting at “ground zero” and that he has been working with a new swing coach in preparation for his return. He added that he has also had to become accustomed to a new routine.

“There’s no more going out there at 9 in the morning and swinging 120 [mph]. It’s the rehab process of getting out there early, doing your stuff, and getting ready to go,” he said.

But after playing only 10 rounds in the last six months and having not played a Tour event in 19 months, Berger feels grateful. If only to be able to be active again.

“I’m used to being on the boat, playing tennis, playing beach volleyball, running, exercising, I’ve always been a very outside kind of person. That kind of was taken away,” he said.

“When that happens, it’s a struggle and you have to figure out ways to kind of be in your own mind and be OK with not being able to do the stuff. That was the hardest part. But once I started to get out there and feel like myself again, that’s when I started to be more like Daniel that I was a year ago.”