Freak Injury Forces 4x PGA Tour Winner to Withdraw from BMW Championship

“I love competition. I love to come out and feel I can play against anybody in the world. That being taken away from you is the toughest part,” Daniel Berger said earlier this year. For him, 2025 was supposed to be the year of his comeback. The American was looking forward to reclaiming what he once thought he had lost, but his chapter with setbacks turns out not to be over yet.

Daniel Berger’s 2025 season came to an abrupt end during the BMW Championship. The four-time PGA Tour winner withdrew from the second playoff tournament ahead of its final round. PGA TOUR Communications on X broke out the news, citing the reason as a ‘finger injury,’ sustained while hitting a shot late in Saturday’s third round. Berger was scheduled to tee off in a pairing with Justin Rose at 10:45 a.m. ET on Sunday.

The timing couldn’t be more brutal. Berger has had a stellar performance this season, with a solo 3rd at the RBC Heritage and a runner-up (T2) at the Phoenix Open after shooting 5 birdies with a 4-under. He also made 15 cuts in 21 starts. In fact, he was tied for 29th place at the BMW Championship, finishing his third round at +2, before exiting. But now, with his sudden withdrawal, the Florida native faces an uncertain road once again.

This uncertainty, however, is familiar territory for Berger. He already has a taste of a massive injury that spanned late 2021 through the end of 2023, threatening his future in professional golf. What he thought would be a manageable lower back pain spiraled into a daily struggle, when simple chores like sitting and walking became excruciating. Like many other golfers, he ignored the pain at first, giving strong results early on in the 2022 season. But when he missed the cut at the 2022 US Open, he realized he couldn’t play any longer.

After months of evaluation, with no improvement and a surgery on the table, he found out that there was a bulging disc and “deep bone sensitivity” in his lower pain. He finally returned to the 2024 American Express after spending some time in rehab, feeling “100 percent healthy.” The results were in patches, especially when the PGA circuit changed after LIV Golf’s debut. But he persevered, giving back-to-back 65s at the Sanderson Farms and qualifying for the US Open through sectionals. By the year’s end, he climbed back inside the top 200 in the world and had secured full playing rights for this season, only for it to come to such a sad end. Golf analysts had tipped him to win big this year — and with all the adjustments he made to his game, it wasn’t hard to see why.

Daniel Berger tried to rebuild it all

Daniel Berger was all set to make a great comeback after his injury. In late 2023, he linked up with 2020 Coach of the Year Mark Blackburn, whose step-by-step approach helped Berger regain both his swing and his confidence. However, his back injury has made his old swing, which was aggressive, difficult to repeat without causing further injury. Moreover, he also teamed up with Ben Shearer, making him his personal trainer to further help him with his swing.

But coaching wasn’t the only piece of the puzzle. The 2024 season saw Berger cycle through five different caddies in search of the right chemistry. That constant turnover, coupled with the adjustment to his game, added more turbulence to an already fragile year when he was trying to affirm his lost footing. He finally landed on Scott Sajtinac to carry his bag.

“It’s just like a million things have changed, and I have whatever you want to call the status thing looming over me. It’s just like you just have to forget about that stuff and give yourself the time,” he had said last year.

By 2025, though, Berger dialed things back. Instead of chasing more changes, he leaned into stability with his support team and focused on building consistency week by week. His biggest tweak came in the form of new iron — the first time in 13 years he had upgraded his set. It was a symbolic shift, but with his uncalled-for withdrawal, his comeback has now again been caught in transition. This situation also results in Berger losing hope for whatever chances he had for the Ryder Cup, and additionally, he will not be eligible for the 2026 Signature events.