SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — A collapsed lung, six broken ribs, a fractured leg: on Friday night at the 2018 Memorial, Bud Cauley’s PGA Tour career came to an abrupt halt.
Twenty-nine years old at the time, Cauley was lucky to survive as a passenger in a late-night single-car accident that occurred just minutes from Muirfield Village Golf Club. But his nightmare was only just beginning.
This week at the WM Phoenix Open, Cauley, 33, will return to the PGA Tour for the first time in more than three years, playing on a major medical extension. His last start on Tour was the 2020 Safeway Open. Before then, the University of Alabama product appeared to be making a full recovery from the injuries he sustained after the accident, in which his friend’s BMW M6 flipped into the air and landed in a ditch.
A former No. 1 junior in the world and one of just a few players to earn PGA Tour membership without going to Q-School, Cauley still had serious potential to rise in the professional ranks. In 2019, he even jumped into contention at the Memorial—one year after the life-threatening crash that transpired just down the road—ultimately finishing in the top 10. He plugged away for another season, until he started experiencing a piercing pain on his right side, the same side that was crushed two years prior.