Finally healthy, Jupiter’s Daniel Berger feeling closer to the golfer who was ranked in top 20 just more than two years ago
WEST PALM BEACH — With a stiff breeze blowing from left to right, Daniel Berger demonstrates how he keeps his tee shot low to avoid the wind carrying it off line.
The ball buzzes through the air, lands and rolls off into the distance.
“I will only go about 260 yards in the air, but it’ll roll 50 yards, it’s still a 300-yard drive,” Berger said Monday as the group seated around the range at the Ibis Golf & Country Club admired the shot.
Berger, the Jupiter resident and former two-time All-American at Florida State, is feeling good again about his game. Finally fully recovered from an injury that impacted him in 2018 and lingered into 2019, Berger is off to an encouraging start for the 2020 season with three top 25 finishes in four events, two inside the top 20.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start and have some off time in December to work on some things and come back next year and play as best as I can,” Berger said at the clinic he and Jupiter’s Patricia Meunier-Lebouc hosted at Ibis as part of the Lacoste Open charity tournament, benefiting the Everglades Foundation. Meunier-Lebouc, 47, won a major on the LPGA Tour, the 2003 Kraft Nabisco Championship,
Berger, 26, has won two tournaments (and more than $13 million) on the PGA Tour since turning professional in 2013 but had a rough last two seasons because of the injury he believes started in his finger and traveled to his wrist as he tried to compensate. It occurred at the Travelers Championship in June 2018 and he played until Labor Day weekend before ending his season.
Then, he sat for four months hoping to heal before “fighting” the injury through most of the 2019 season, going through about two hours of treatment each day to be able to play.
“That was a tough time for me,” said Berger, who called the injury “stressful” because he had never had one that lasted so long. “I tried so many different things to get healthy. I think the biggest thing was just time. In retrospect, I would have just taken an extended break and not tried to play through it.”
After winning his first event on tour in 2016, the St. Jude Classic; repeating as the St. Jude champion the next year and playing in the 2017 Presidents Cup, Berger’s World Golf Ranking peaked at No. 18 in June 2017.
But in the last two seasons he has had one second-place finish and two in the top 10. He currently is 145th in the world after finishing 17th in the ZOZO Championship in Japan last month, a tournament won by Tiger Woods.
“There’s such a small difference between being 18th in the world and being (where) I am right now,” he said. “It really does feel very close and I think the first (four) events I played this year were reminiscent of how I played back in the day when I was (18th). It’s just a shot or two here or there that really makes the biggest difference.
“If you can maintain your composure and hang in there long enough, you end up seeing good results. I think last year I was a little impatient in some of the weeks that I played well, I pushed a little too hard on the weekend and didn’t get the results I was looking for.”
Berger’s best finish last season was a tie for sixth in June at the U.S. Open in Pebble Beach.
Berger, who graduated from Dwyer High School, plans to take time off in December before returning in January and ramping up for the Florida swing, which starts Feb. 27 with the Honda Classic at PGA National.
In the meantime, he will tune into the Presidents Cup, which should bring back a flood of memories from 2017 when he clinched the victory for the U.S. over the International team at Liberty National in Jersey City by beating South Korean Si Woo Kim.
Berger said hanging out with legends such as Woods, Freddie Couples and Davis Love made the Presidents Cup one of the best weeks of his life. Woods is the second playing captain for this year’s Presidents Cup, which will be held in Melbourne, Australia.
“Spending time with some of the greats of golf and getting some of their insights and hearing their stories … those are memories you don’t forget,” he said.
