David Puig has teed off from the 1st tee at Quail Hollow this Wednesday shortly after two in the afternoon, local time in Charlotte. The plan is to play nine holes to decide if he can play the PGA Championship. The young golfer from La Garriga is dealing with some discomfort in the lower back that has him on edge. The good news is that he is playing. The bad news is that these are his first holes in more than ten days.
Puig left Korea with a sore lumbar area. He has undergone many tests, the latest being a CT scan this very morning at a hospital in Charlotte, and so far, there is no conclusive diagnosis. No doctor has been able to determine that he has a specific injury. The only reality is that it bothers him, and it reaches a point where it locks up, and he can hardly move.
The preparation for the PGA Championship has been completely disrupted. Since the LIV Korea tournament, the first balls Puig hit were yesterday, Tuesday, on the practice range. He barely managed to hit ten and had to stop. Today he hit eight during the warm-up and went out to play. He hasn’t even walked the course. All the work has been done by his caddie Alberto Sánchez. If today’s test goes well and he goes out to play tomorrow, he will face Quail Hollow without having seen the back nine holes.
“Yesterday I had a five percent chance of playing, and today at least I can walk and I am playing. Let’s see how the body responds in these nine holes, how I feel after playing, and then we’ll make a decision,” the Spanish golfer explained to Ten Golf.
Obviously, Puig is going to do everything in his power to be able to play the fifth Major of his career. He is willing to play with discomfort; the big problem is if the back area locks up, as in that case, he can’t do anything, and his participation in the PGA would be impossible. David already played last year’s PGA Championship at Valhalla and missed the cut.
The only thing left is to cross fingers and hope that Puig’s body responds in the best possible way to this nine-hole test at Quail Hollow.
