Former Boise State golfer returns to PGA Tour after nearly two-year layoff

Former Boise State golfer and Eagle resident Graham DeLaet is scheduled to return to the PGA Tour on Thursday for the first time in nearly two years.

DeLaet has been dealing with back injuries for much of his career and hasn’t played on tour since withdrawing from a tournament in Korea in October 2017, when he couldn’t hit his driver farther than 240 yards.

He’s set to tee off at 8 a.m. Mountain on Thursday in the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas.

DeLaet told Postmedia that he has no way to know if the time is right for his return.

“But at some point I just have to kind of give it a try,” he said.

DeLaet has finished as high as eighth in the FedExCup standings in 2013 and has 33 career top-10 finishes. He tied for seventh at the 2017 PGA Championship shortly before taking a break. He was inducted into the Boise State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

When he couldn’t get healthy enough to play, he underwent the second back surgery of his career in 2018.

“I’m scared, for sure,” DeLaet told the Idaho Statesman in July 2018, before the surgery. “The last time I had this done was probably the scariest day of my life, and it’s starting to build now. But because I’ve been through this before, I’m also optimistic. I played six years of pretty good golf on that disc that was operated on.”

Former Boise State golfer and Meridian resident Troy Merritt also is in the Shriners field. He finished 58th in the FedExCup last year. He tees off at 1:10 p.m. Mountain on Thursday.