Bud Cauley is back at the Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio,, where he suffered a life-altering car accident in 2018. / Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
During the 2018 Memorial Tournament, Bud Cauley’s life was changed forever.Â
Hours after missing the cut at Muirfield Village, Cauley was in a serious car accident. He returned to the Tour four months later, but complications persisted. Due to several surgeries, he didn’t tee it up for nearly four years.Â
Now, amid an inspiring comeback campaign, he’s back at the Memorial for the first time in five years.
“I’m so excited for him,†said Justin Thomas, who was teammates with Cauley at the University of Alabama and the best man at his wedding. “He’s so good and so talented. He’s got one of those games that can just play out here for so long and can win out here, and I think he's showing that this year. And he’s just putting himself there more and more, which I think, for him, has probably been the biggest hurdle is that it has been a career full of injuries to where he hasn't consistently been able to do that to feel comfortable, to get it done when he gets there.â€
At the time of the accident, Cauley was sitting just outside the top 100 in the world rankings. When he began teeing it up again, he was No. 1,834.Â
The 35-year-old is now No. 57.Â
Considering all he’s been through, just playing again on Tour is a success.Â
Cauley detailed all his complications ahead of the 2024 WM Phoenix Open, his first Tour start in years.Â
“I recovered from (the car accident), played for a couple years,†he said, “and then out of the blue, my side started to hurt again. I broke six ribs in that accident was kind of the biggestâ€"on the right side, and all of a sudden started to hurt.
“I went and saw a couple doctors. They thought it was maybe one of the plates I have in my chest. So I went to go have the plates removed, and they couldn't get them out because the bone had grown on top of the plates.
“So stitched me back up, said, I think we’ll be O.K., we took a little scar tissue out, you'll be fine, and then like 12 days later, my incision popped open. Just standing in the house, (his wife) Kristi goes, â€~Your shirt is kind of wet.’ Take my shirt off, there's just a hole in the side of my chest.
“Had to go back to the emergency room, a couple moreâ€"I couldn't really feel it. I've kind of had so much happen in that area, I've lost a little bit of feeling, which I think worked out in that situation.
“But decided to go in, had a couple more surgeries that didn't heal very well, and it was just a whole mess. I had a seroma, got C-diff from all the antibiotics. Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong. That just set me back obviously just over three years.â€
This season, however, Cauley has four top 10s in 11 starts, including a T6 at the Players Championship. And that has propelled him to his return at the Memorial, a limited-field signature event with a $20 million purse.
Thomas couldn’t be more joyful.
“I think it's just a matter of time,†the two-time major winner said. “But he’s playing great and, yeah, back to the incident here was awful. I’m so happy he’s not just playing again, but playing well, because he’s one of my best friends in the world and it was a terrible, terrible night and weekâ€"and, yeah, and really couple years, just because he didn’t know what was going to happen. I’m just glad he's back.â€
Cauley shares those feelings. Now, he hopes to notch his maiden Tour victory in full-circle fashion.Â