Golfer Cauley has bounced back from injuries in serious car accident

March 14-- Mar. 14--Nearly 10 months after being injured as a passenger in a car accident in Dublin, Ohio, Bud Cauley of Jacksonville Beach is playing nearly as solid as he was before the horrific crash after the second round of The Memorial.

It's giving him optimism that he can change his fortune at The Players Championship. Cauley has missed the cut in all three starts at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Cauley mixed a tie for 12th at the Honda Classic between missed cuts at the Genesis Open and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but also has a tie for 13th at the Farmers Insurance Open and a tie for 10th at the Shriners Hospital for Children Open. He's 70th on the FedEx Cup points list and is 38th on the PGA Tour in scoring average at 70.54.

He'd like nothing better than to regain the momentum at his hometown course when The Players Championship begins on Thursday.

Before Cauley's accident, which occurred when he riding with friends, he had posted seven top-25s and two top-10s for the 2018 season. Cauley built enough points to remain eligible for this season, finishing 124th on the final list.

Cauley had a broken leg, six fractured ribs, a collapsed lung and a concussion in the accident, which occurred in an upscale neighborhood across the street from where former University of Florida and Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer lived.

Cauley said he found out later that Meyer came out to check on the occupants of the car.

As bad as his injuries seemed at the time, Cauley surprised doctors and physical therapists with how quickly he healed and rehabilitated.

He also said he's not feeling any lingering effects.

"I feel 100 percent great," he said. "Everything healed up as well as I could expect. It could have been a lot worse."

Cauley started putting and chipping two months after the accident and it took another six weeks to, as he said, "work through the bag."

He said he has some issues getting dialed in with the driver but said it's unrelated to his injuries.

"I'm hitting the irons pretty well and chipping and putting pretty solid," he said. "The driver has been something I've been working on. I drove it well at Honda but last week I struggled. I'm trying to sort it out but if I can drive it better, I can play pretty well."

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