Akshay Bhatia’s Bruised Shoulder, Wyndham Clark’s Back & More: Injury Crisis Casts Shadow Over 2024 Masters

One by one, all the bigwigs and rising stars of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf have descended on Georgia. However, not all of them are fully fit. For some, like Akshay Bhatia, it’s a work in progress. Not his Masters preparation, but his dislocated shoulder. The two-time PGA Tour winner is not alone in battling with some form of health concern, though.

He is joined by one of his PGA Tour colleagues, a LIV Golfer and a former Masters champion. There are less than four days to go before the opening round, and these four players are bracing themselves before the first Major of the season. 

Akshay Bhatia 

Akshay Bhatia suffered a bizarre injury at the Valero Texas Open. The 22-year-old was visibly excited after making his 12-foot bride putt at the 18th green, forcing the game to go into a playoff. The roaring fist pump though dislocated his shoulder. This is not the first time, however. Bhatia had injured it at the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship as well. “It’s a weird, weird experience because I had so much adrenaline so I had no pain kind of in that playoff. But it’s definitely something we’re going to have to work towards,” said the two-time PGA Tour winner at Augusta.

Cameron Smith

The former Open champion was forced to withdraw from LIV Golf Miami, the warm-up event before the Masters, without LIV Golf specifying the reason. It was food poisoning that compelled Smith to pull out after the first round. The Australian International shot 3-over 75 in the opening round. Smith has a stellar record at the Masters, with three consecutive top-10s between 2020 and 2022. Smith plans to play a practice round on Monday, mostly working on his short game. 

Wyndham Clark 

Wyndham Clark, too, suffered a rather freak back injury at the gym. Speaking at the Texas Children’s Houston Open, the reigning US Open champion said, “I was in the gym. I didn’t have anything [wrong] going into the workout. Just out of nowhere, it went out. It is just a muscle thing.” On the positive side, Clark played full four rounds in Houston tying for 31, and took the next week off. 

Bernhard Langer

It was going to be a ceremonial appearance for the former Masters champion. His last, in fact, was on the Augusta greens, the 66-year-old announced beforehand. However, pickleball played spoilsport. Langer tore his Achilles tendon playing pickleball, which, ironically, was part of his fitness regime for the first Major of the season. Langer will still attend the Champions dinner, though. And, most importantly, he was hitting balls on the greens, an indication of quick recovery. However, he won’t be part of the 88th edition of the Masters. 

Tiger Woods is also returning to the greens after withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational due to influenza. The five-time Masters champion also admitted that his back locked a couple of times in Riviera. “I’m going to be rusty and I have to do a better job at home prepping. We need to do a better job with lifting and treating and continuation of rehab protocols, all those things. I just haven’t done it in a while,” said the 48-year-old. But, the veteran golfer would tee up at Augusta with hopes of reaching a step closer to Jack Nicklaus.

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