ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – If there was an ideal time to get injured, Daniel Berger found it and threaded the needle this summer.

Berger fractured his right ring finger while hitting a greenside bunker shot on the 14th hole of his third round at the BMW Championship in August. While he gutted out the final five holes, Berger withdrew before his Sunday tee time, and already outside the top 30 of the FedExCup standings to begin the week, the withdrawal guaranteed Berger would not advance to the TOUR Championship. It’s clear now that Berger wouldn’t have been able to play even if he did.

“It was like the best case scenario for that stuff to happen, obviously, you don't want anything to happen, but, I mean, like, what if that had happened in April?” Berger told PGATOUR.COM on Wednesday.

Berger is playing The RSM Classic this week, marking his first start since the injury. He said his injury was one “you don’t really do much for,” other than rest. He had a splint on the ring finger for the first seven weeks and didn’t start hitting golf balls until early November, three months after the initial injury and under two weeks before The RSM Classic.

Berger said his doctors expect he won’t regain full strength and health in the finger for another three months, but that he won’t make it worse by playing. That was all Berger needed to hear.

“I'm not too concerned about this week,” he said. “You know, I'm just kind of playing 'cause I didn't want to take four months off.”

The American is on a ball count for the time being and is managing the pain and swelling with ice and painkillers. The goal is just to make it through four rounds without too much discomfort. Berger is also scheduled to play the Grant Thornton Invitational in December alongside LPGA star Charley Hull.

The timing was a bit of good injury fortune for a man with a checkered medical history. Berger was sidelined for 19 months, missing most of 2022 and all of 2023 with lingering back issues. He returned to a full-time schedule in 2024, but did so without any access to Signature Events. Struggling in spurts, Berger needed to play The RSM Classic a year ago just to stay within the top 125 of the FedExCup Fall. But Berger reached the top 50 in the FedExCup with a strong 2025, finally returning to the strong status he held before his first injury. That allowed ample time for Berger to recover this fall without the pressure of playing for his card.

“The game is in a pretty good place for having taken two and a half months off,” Berger said. “Like, I was kind of shocked when I came back.”