James Nicholas spent seven days crawling around his own home. An injury from a jump had left him with painful bone bruises in both heels. The setback also put his dream of earning a PGA Tour card on shaky ground. Now, weeks after withdrawing from the Open Championship, James Nicholas is finally speaking about what happened and how much it has cost him in the final stretch of the Korn Ferry Tour season.

“I want to play against those guys week in and week out, and this is the way to get there,” Nicholas said in video posted on Korn Ferry Tour’s X handle. “I’m 21st on the points list, which is on the outside looking in for the first time since Bogota when I won. There are so many good golfers out there, and there’s no faking it. You’ve got to earn it.”

The Yale graduate has only recently returned to the course and has walked nine holes for the first time in four weeks. Moreover, he is doing so with gel inserts in his shoes for extra cushioning, which he can swap in and out during his practice rounds. The injury traces back to a trip just weeks before the Open. It’s probably the freakiest injury any golfer has ever endured.

Locked out of his hotel with no way to reach his car for an early practice session, Nicholas climbed out of the window and then scaled a six-foot wall in flip-flops to get to the parking lot. As he landed hard on concrete on both heels, he suffered calcaneal bone bruises in each foot. An MRI ruled out fractures, but the pain returned after he pushed through it during the first round of the Open Championship.

“The next day [Friday] I woke up, and I couldn’t walk. When I say I couldn’t walk, I was literally crawling around my house for the next seven days. I was pushed through the airport in a wheelchair. Ended up getting a walker to get around my house and crutches, and it felt really weird.”

Nicholas started his first round at Royal Birkdale with a five-over 75, but increasing pain forced him to withdraw before round two started. Naturally, the withdrawal stung because of what the week represented for Nicholas.

He had earned his spot on the Open through Final Qualifying at Burnham and Berrow. He came fresh off a tie for 65th at the U.S. Open, which was his second straight appearance on the stage. His injury ended that run short. Moreover, his position on the Korn Ferry Tour couldn’t help him either.

Nicholas had won his first tour title at the Astara Golf Championship in Bogota in February. That win catapulted him to No. 16 on the points list by late June. But two events he missed while being unable to walk have led to his ranking dropping to 21st, just one spot outside the top 20 that earns an automatic PGA Tour card when the season ends. Despite the ranking drop, Nicholas has remained clear about reaching his dream.

‘If I go out and I play great [this season], I’m going to have a PGA Tour card,’ he said while speaking at a conference in April this year. “If I go out and play not so well, I won’t be. But that’s the beauty of the game. You either earn it, or you don’t, and it’s all on you.”

Now, with several events remaining before the points list lock-in, he is looking to close that gap and return to the competition.