SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 11, 2024

Tyler McCumber

Waialae Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How does it fell to be back?

TYLER McCUMBER: It feels great teeing it up on the first tee. It's been a while doing that, but all good feelings coming back. It's been quite the journey to get here. Very happy to be on Hawaiian turf.

Q. Speaking of the journey, it was I think the PLAYERS in 2022 where you withdrew. Haven't played since then.

TYLER McCUMBER: Yeah.

Q. What was the injury and the timeline of what got you back to here?

TYLER McCUMBER: Yeah, had some shoulder issues that I've had for a long time. Addressed them again for a second surgery. Put some anchors in my labrum, and then I had my hip as well, so a posterior labral repair. Few anchors in there as well.

That whole left side needed some love, so I had to do it. Yeah, that's kind of what I've been up to the last year and a half.

Q. Like in terms of thinking of might need to shut it down, did you play through it? How long did you play through it, feeling pain?

TYLER McCUMBER: Yeah, so I had already had a prior shoulder surgery. I was pretty familiar with the shoulder instability I guess you could call it.

I would say I was playing, kind of battling it, the pain, trying to manage the pain and instability, but it's just not a good feeling in your backswing and shoulder doesn't feel like it's in its socket.

Obviously needed to be addressed. Yeah, it was.

Q. Is that the typical length of time to deal with that injury?

TYLER McCUMBER: No. No, it's normally about a year for a shoulder, but I had my hip labral repair, four anchors in my posterior hip six months ago. That's normally about a year, but I'm back early.

Q. And how come you didn't do -- could you have done it at the same time?

TYLER McCUMBER: It's pretty tough. To answer your question, I didn't -- wasn't quite aware I needed that yet, so I got it done afterwards. But, yeah.

Q. How have you spent that time? Learn to play the guitar? Any new hobbies?

TYLER McCUMBER: I wish. I was not that productive. Learned a lot about anatomy. I know parts of my body that I never heard the words before. A little bit of art in there. Spending time with friends and family. A lot of healing.

Obviously a lot of down time post bigger operations like that. I haven't tallied the time, but a lot of time spent up in bed and recovering.

Like to your question earlier, could I have done them at the same time, I went through it twice. I was up, back at it, tried to push through, back with my feet up, so kind of went through it two times.

Q. Were the injuries tied together at all?

TYLER McCUMBER: Yeah, I would say if you're looking at it from a kinematic sequence aspect, ground up, yeah, I think the hip has a great effect on the shoulder if you're working up the chain. Which came first, I don't know, but, yeah, both definitely needed addressing.

Q. What was the first time you had it? When did your shoulder first start bothering you?

TYLER McCUMBER: In '16, '17, so pretty much my entire professional career. When I started playing, the volume of play went way up as you segue from college to professional golf. I had that surgery at the end of '17.

Yeah, kind of forever. Nice not to worry about it anymore.

Q. The surgery in '22, how long after you kind of stepped away was that surgery?

TYLER McCUMBER: I tried to get it as -- obviously I wanted to avoid surgery. That was the goal. So did the rehabilitation, strengthening. The injections we're allowed to do, PRP, whatever it was to get that shoulder as healthy as possible.

When it comes to the ligaments, labrum, they can only do so much without that invasion of surgery.

Q. So it was like fall 2022-ish?

TYLER McCUMBER: It was the end of the summer, yeah, like July 1st, end of June.

Q. What sort of the competitive golf have you played leading up to this?

TYLER McCUMBER: I played a Bo Tour event a month ago out near Palm Springs. Three rounds. First time teeing up. I was super nervous on the first tee. Carried my bag, walked 54 holes, and that was kind of my test to see where my bead was at. Where my mind was at as well.

I felt pretty solid post-playing. I feel like I'm definitely coming in with -- working out some kinks. I have a really good team back home and out here. Yeah, felt like I was ready, so figured I would start in one of my favorite spots in the world.

Q. Was there any wondering in your mind if you were going to ever back, or did you always have faith?

TYLER McCUMBER: You're asking me the deep ones, man. Trying to get me to choke up over here. I feel like I went through the whole gambit of emotions. Obviously those are two major surgeries. There is a lot of unknowns.

I've always sort of had belief in myself. Definitely had belief in myself as a player. I knew it wasn't going to be from a lack of effort and belief.

There are new joints, new stuff I'm dealing with in my body and I didn't know that process. That's a little scary, but like I said, I have a really good team and I trust them.

Q. What's Mark's involvement in your game these days?

TYLER McCUMBER: Yeah, we talk all the time. We've spent a lot of time on kind of -- not really in the same city over the last -- because I had surgeries in Colorado and did a lot of PT out there.

Yeah, we talk quite a bit about course management and dealing with the stress and headspace and preparation through these surgeries. He had a little bit of time off with the shoulder surgery, but he was pretty fortunate for the most part. He played most years.

So the two years after, we kind of had to figure that one out on our own.