Chris DiMarco's self-assessment is blunt.

"My worst year, without a doubt, in the last 10," DiMarco said of 2006.

Physically, professionally and emotionally, it would be hard to quibble. A rib injury suffered while skiing in March derailed a promising season start. His mother's dying from a heart attack in June left his family in shock. His emotional recovery and runner-up finish at the British Open that earned him a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team was dampened by a poor personal performance in Ireland.

"After I got hurt, I went 10 or 11 weeks out of 14 or 15 where I missed cuts," DiMarco said. "I'd never done that before. Confidence was at an all-time low."

DiMarco's struggles hit at a time when he'd elevated his stature in the game. He was a runner-up at the 2004 PGA Championship and 2005 Masters, and the hero of the U.S. Presidents Cup victory in 2005.

Then he started 2006 by overtaking Henrik Stenson in the European Tour's Abu Dhabi event, his first professional victory since 2002 in Phoenix. His game was in good shape when he took a couple of weeks off to rest before the Players-to-Masters stretch of the season.

"I had just won in Abu Dhabi, made all the cuts on the West Coast, played a great final round at Doral, then went skiing, and it all went boom," DiMarco said.

He took a tumble skiing, falling awkwardly on his backpack and jabbing his ribs on something hard inside it. He skipped the Players Championship and tried to come back the week before the Masters. He missed the cut in Atlanta and Augusta.

"You start hitting bad shots and shooting poor scores, and you start questioning your confidence," he said. "And when that happens, no matter how confident a person you are, you are in trouble. I thought it was going to be a big year. I was going to take a nice week off and re-energize my body and get ready for TPC week, and I was ready to go."

The effects of the injury and the premature return lingered through the summer, affecting his backswing and a shoulder turn that isn't the biggest on tour.

But DiMarco is back on track to realize his potential. He hasn't missed a cut since the week before last year's PGA Championship, and he contended on Sunday last month in Tampa.

DiMarco has been runner-up in every major but the U.S. Open in the past three years. Twice in the final pairing at Augusta, he hopes a healthy return there can recover some "magic."

"It's always a special place there, always something you look forward to," he said. "The thing is, they keep doing things to that golf course that make it harder and harder for guys who hit it 280 (yards) to play.

"I used to say the British Open would be the hardest for me to win, but I played pretty well last year," he said of his performance at Hoylake. "The problem is, other than the British Open, all the courses are 7,500 yards now. If you don't hit the ball 310, which I don't, you really better putt your tail off."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.