Jordan Spieth hits from a bunker during the second round of the FedEx St. Louis Championship. Jude at TPC Southwind on August 16, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn.
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Jordan Spieth finally took care of his nagging wrist injury last month, opting to have surgery after his season ended in FedEx Championship St. Jewish.
Now, two weeks removed from one successful procedure, really the hard part begins – patiently waiting to return.
Spieth joined Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio Wednesday and detailed his injury, surgery and pending recovery, saying he should be able to start making full swings 10 weeks from now. mid november. He added that the challenging part will be trying to take it slow when he reaches the 10 to 12 week mark and is able to start light training.
“It should be pretty good until the new year,” Spieth said. “I just don’t know if I’d be able to play any of the events in December like tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch now. But I’m also immobilized after two weeks, so it all seems like a stretch. That’s what they told me. I’ve also been told that no one comes back too late.”
Spieth said his wrist injury dates back to late 2017, when he hurt it during a practice session. He said he didn’t fix it right away and fell into some bad swing habits, and it would act up without warning — even when he started playing better regardless.
Then came May 2023, when Spieth was playing with his son in the pool. He went out, felt something was coming out and needed withdraw from AT&T Byron Nelson.
“And it’s been something this year where that kind of shift has happened, you know, 20-odd times since February and it started happening more and more,” Spieth said. “So it was something that couldn’t be fixed with time off, unfortunately. That’s why I had to do this.”
Oddly enough, the injury never really bothered him while playing golf, but it would pop up randomly off the course, or occasionally just in front of a car. He said he would just “pop the tendon back in place” and move on.
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“There was one day, it was John Deere Friday this year, where I actually texted Michael like, ‘Hey man, it went out last night, it’s not back overnight and I can’t do this. I have to go fix this now,’” he said. “So that John Deere Friday, I was calling him to actually quit. It was sometime in the afternoon and I actually ended up in the range about 15 minutes before my time because I finally put it in and just said let’s see what happens here this week, and then I can reevaluate if I play through the Open or whatever .
“At the end of this year it just started happening more and more. So there was a specific time there where I remember, you know, I’m retiring and I have to go do this. But it was just going to be another three or four weeks of playing and seeing if I could put something together to get into the top 50 or top 30, knowing I was sure at that point I was going to have the surgery when my season was over. “
Spieth was winless in 22 starts last season, finishing three times in the top 10. He hasn’t won since the 2022 RBC Legacy and missed the tour championship for the first time since 2020.
This past season, he drove the ball better than ever (13th in SG: Off the Tee) but ranked 131st in approach and 94th in shooting. He said the wrist never hindered his play off the tee, but as he got closer to the green and certain putts in, he started to think about it.
“More of a groundstroke, every time I had a slant shot, like I said I really didn’t want to excuse myself all year because it didn’t hurt to hit the shot, and then I’d get into the contest and then I would release on bail,” he said. “It was very strange. And so I think it was a pretty large sample size over a year, you’d think it would wear you down after a week or two, but for me, I just kept thinking, you know, this is just something mechanically that I need to fix. And at least now I have some clarity.”
Spieth said he has already begun “very minimal” physical therapy.
“Hopefully I’ll come back from it and I just don’t have to think about it, and I know it might not be the first few months that I’m back,” Spieth said. “But from what I hear, I’ve talked to a lot of different players who’ve had similar surgeries and a lot of guys in different sports and they say, ‘Look, one day you’re going to wake up and if you’re. enough patience, you do the right rehab, listen to your docs and take your time, there’s going to be a day where you wake up and you’re like, man, I just totally forgot there was ever a problem.’ So I look forward to that day. I don’t know when that will be, but I imagine hopefully it will be within the next four or five months and then I’ll be back.”
