AUGUSTA, Ga. — Bryson DeChambeau, a rising star on the PGA Tour, never imagined he would withdraw from a tournament just to avoid pain.
DeChambeau, 24, grew up admiring Tiger Woods, who had brought a football mentality to the sport, his toughness immortalized by his victory at the 2008 United States Open despite a left leg in need of surgery.
But after DeChambeau winced through the first round of last month’s Valspar Championship, he wasn’t thinking of the Tiger Woods he had always wanted to become. Instead DeChambeau remembered what Woods had said during a practice round they had played together at Torrey Pines in January, nine months after Woods’s fourth lower-back operation since April 2014.