RBS ambassador Luke Donald, out with an injured wrist, watched with mixed feelings as his rivals tackled the horrendous conditions at Royal Birkdale. Now he has to sit on the sidelines again at the PGA Championship, before making an agonising decision on whether or not to have surgery.
"In the next week or so, I will have to make one of the biggest decisions of my career as a result of the injury which I suffered during the final round of the US Open.
I have damaged some connective tissue in my left wrist which holds one of the tendons in place - for the anatomically minded, it's the ECU or Extensor Carpi Ulnaris tendon. Because this wall of connective tissue is damaged, it is allowing the tendon to slip out of place. You could say that the tendon is dislocating, but it is not an actual dislocation.
The good news is that there is nothing wrong with the tendon itself, it is only the connective tissue which is injured. If I was an ordinary member of the public, it wouldn't make too much difference to my life. The fact is that 95 per cent of the time my wrist feels normal. It's just that when it flexes in certain positions when I try to swing a club, the tendon pops out.
I am nearing the crossroads where, if the injury does not improve, I will have to decide whether or not to go ahead with surgery. It is a huge decision for me because if I go for surgery next week, then I certainly would be out for at least two to three months which would take me through to the middle-to-end of October. In effect, I would miss the rest of the season. The alternative is simply to give my wrist more time to heal, and continue with the rehabilitation therapy which I have been doing over the past few weeks.
It might be well worth my while to try and wait a few more weeks and see whether the rehabilitation process works. The best case scenario is that I could be back playing in three or four weeks.
If I decide to go down that route, I would still have to set a cut-off date where, if the injury has not healed, I would then get surgery, because I definitely want to be fully fit for next year.
It has all been hugely frustrating, and missing the Open and the US PGA and possibly missing the Ryder Cup are all very disappointing. It is particularly annoying that this has happened to me in a Ryder Cup year. The Cup only comes around every two years so I feel as if I'm missing out double.
I have not yet given up on making the European team for Valhalla, but at this point it doesn't look good for me. If I go for surgery then obviously I'm out, but if I choose to continue with the rest and rehabilitation, then I might miss the next three or four events and that would probably mean that I would not automatically qualify for a place in the team.
It would then be up to team captain Nick Faldo to offer me a wild card place. The longer things go on as they are at present, the less likely it is that I will make it.
It is difficult to find positives in this experience but I am trying to do so. In the weeks since the injury happened, I have spent most of the time in the UK, doing a lot of trips into London for therapy. I have been concentrating on getting physically fitter though I don't think the injury was due to my fitness level, as I have good stamina and have worked out a lot over the years. But you can always be fitter and healthier, so I've been doing a lot of work, especially on my body alignment.
It will now be very frustrating for me to watch the rest of the guys in the US PGA at Oakland Hills. I played in my first Ryder Cup on the course in 2004. It was a tough test then and I believe they've made it even tougher for this tournament. I am sure it will be another major in which par is a pretty good score, which seems to be something of a trend at the moment.
The 18th is one of the toughest holes in golf, a long par four which doglegs to the right to one of the most severe greens you will ever play with a big hump right in the middle. It will be interesting to watch the leaders coming up to the end on Sunday when perhaps they'll have to make a par to win.
Once again, Tiger Woods will not be there and for me the tournament is wide open. There really are so many players who'll have a chance to win, and I am sure that there will be great stories emerging from the tournament just as happened at the Open.
If someone had offered me six months off without missing the events that I have missed then I might happily have taken it, but this was not the way I wanted to get myself a break. My aim now is to come back refreshed and in a better overall condition. I just don't know when that will happen."
