Injury bug biting hard at Augusta

• By Rex Hoggard
• Apr 5, 2012 5:32 PM ET

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Golf doesn’t do injury reports but if it did it would be filled with ailing golfers this week at Augusta National.

Dustin Johnson was the first to be sidelined earlier this week with a back injury he sustained last weekend. According to his trainer Randy Myers he will be out for about three weeks.

Mark O’Meara followed Johnson to the DL early Thursday with a strained intercostal muscle on his left side which he told Golf Channel felt like “a knife stabbing me in the ribs.”

At least two other injured players endured the opening 18 holes. Jason Day wrenched his left ankle running last week and was unable to play practice rounds on Monday and Tuesday because of the ailment.

According to Day’s manager Bud Martin, the Australian never considered withdrawing from this week’s event and didn’t undergo any X-Rays. Day, a runner-up here last year, will likely take a week or two off to allow the injury to heal and opened with a 76.

Lucas Glover has also been slowed by an intercostal injury on his left side this week. Glover, who missed much of this season with a knee injury, carded a first-round 75.

“At No. 17 he stepped into a bunker to hit his shot and had to walk back out and catch his breath,” Glover’s manager Mac Barnhardt told GTC. “It’s just something that came up last week.”