“Battling flu, Covid, neck injury” – Webb Simpson recalls a frustrating year

“Battling flu, Covid, neck injury” – Webb Simpson recalls a frustrating year

Webb Simpson

USA’s Webb Simpson reckoned that 2021 was a frustrating year on the PGA Tour. “From neck injury to catching COVID-19, the 36-year-old’s journey was nothing less than a roller-coaster last year.

“Battling flu, Covid, neck injury,” he remembered on Tuesday to reporters. “I feel like that crept into my golf game.”

After a decent performance in 2020 where he won twice, Simpson admitted that the injury-plagued 2021 was a letdown. He sprinkled in five top-10s throughout the year but zero top-threes and later slid from eighth to his current spot in 29th in the world.

Right now, he’s making his 2022 debut at this week’s Sony Open. He wishes he’d played last week’s event of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, too — but that one’s reserved for winners.

Simpson names his favourite tournaments

The North Carolina native Simpson mentioned that missing out on playing his top three favourite tournaments – Tour Championship, Ryder Cup and Tournament of Champions.

“Three things I’ve missed out on the Tour Championship, Ryder Cup and Tournament of Champions, and those are my favourite events,” he said. “It was a letdown year, I guess, this past year. And I realize, you know, I have a lot of sympathy for guys who have gone through injury because I had never gone through it and it really messes with you for a while. It hinders your workouts and it hinders your practice.”

Despite tweaking his neck while hitting balls at the Wells Fargoa in May 2021, Simpson had a run of solid golf after that. He finished top-20 in four of his next five starts as his season finished at the BMW Championship, a week before the 30-player season finale.

“I really felt it that night,” Simpson said. “I love Atlanta. I love East Lake. My wife used to live there. Thirty guys. It’s such a good week. That was hard.”

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