The defending champion won’t defend his title at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week at Bay Hill.
Bryson DeChambeau announced Monday that he’s withdrawing from the field because of a left hand injury. The 28-year-old, who outlasted Lee Westwood to win the Arnold Palmer title by one shot last year, will be replaced in the field by first alternate Scott Piercy.
DeChambeau has only competed in two official PGA Tour events this season, finishing tied for 25th at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in early January.
He withdrew from the second round of the Saudi International earlier this month, citing left hand and left hip injuries, after shooting 3-over 73 in the first round.
When it was speculated that the injuries were related to his rigorous bulking up over the past two years, DeChambeau said he was hurt in a fall earlier that week.
In a video posted to his Twitter account Monday, DeChambeau said he was close to recovered but didn’t want to push the injury by playing too soon, saying his hope is to return to competition next week at the Players Championship.
“I’ve been hitting a lot of balls in the simulator, I’ve been working hard on my game and working hard on recovery,” DeChambeau said. “Man, it’s a tough decision right now. I have a lot of work to do to get everything back into order for this week, and I just feel that it’s too short of time for me to get back playing at 100 percent capacity.
“Right now, I’m at like 90 percent. I just don’t want to go out there and hurt myself even more and not be 100 percent ready for the rest of the season. I don’t want to come back early and then have to take more time off.
“As of right now, I just can’t risk going out there and have it re-aggravate,” he went on. “It has been one of the hardest moments in my life because I’m not able to do much. Although I can hit some golf balls, it’s not fully comfortable. It’s been frustrating.”