Jordan Spieth hits earlier this month at the FedEx St. Louis Championship. Jew.
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Jordan Spieth says surgery on his left wrist “went well.”
Through a message of 54 words posted on his social media channels on Saturday, the three-time major winner said he underwent the procedure last week. Two weeks ago, after ending his PGA Tour season at the FedEx St. Jude, Spieth said he would have the job done, though he was light on specifics, saying doctors will have to “recreate the tendon” in his left wrist “so it doesn’t dislocate” and that the timeline for his return to golf is roughly three to four months, or roughly in time for the start of the 2025 PGA Tour season.
Below is Spieth’s full score from Saturday:
“I had a procedure on my left wrist last week, as I had mentioned was the plan. The surgery went smoothly and I am grateful for the incredible medical team and the support of Annie (Spieth’s wife) and my family.
“Focused on rest and rehab, and looking forward to getting back to golf healthy and ready for 2025!”
Work and uncertainty certainly lie ahead. wrists are an integral part of golf. In Spieth’s case, his left has been troublesome for a while, and his scores can be considered fair at best in that time.
In one article published on GOLF.com Earlier this month, Alan Bastable detailed Spieth’s injury journey this way:
Spieth’s last PGA Tour win came 28 months ago at the RBC Heritage in Harbor Town. Two more years since then have been marked by highs (T4 at Masters 2023; another close win at RBC; his usual short-game magic); landings (14 missed cuts and a disqualification); swing changes (his face is much more closed at the top than in his 2015 peak, an adjustment Brandel Chamblee said in January it was “one of the strangest things I think I’ve seen since I’ve been sitting in this chair for 20 years”); and, perhaps most impactfully, the nagging left arm and wrist issues he’s battled to varying degrees since chipping a bone in his left hand in 2018, an injury he later acknowledged that he had never treated her properly.
For years, Spieth didn’t talk much about his condition; he hesitated to use it as an excuse. But over time, the complications that came with it became impossible to ignore. In May 2023, Spieth withdrew from the Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas, citing acute pain in his left wrist. He played in the PGA Championship at Oak Hill a week later, but still didn’t qualify.
In October of that year, in the wake of the Ryder Cup, Spieth strained his wrist again while setting up a toaster in his house. “I wasn’t even doing anything when I hurt him that should have caused what happened,” Spieth said the month after the two blasts. After several tests, doctors diagnosed him with damage to the ulnar nerve. Finally, some medical clarity. “It makes me think, by staying on top of that, I can structurally do what I need to do to be at my best,” Spieth said afterward.
Spieth spent the offseason trying to recover, undergoing physical therapy up to four times a week. In the first event of the 2024 season, the Sentry, Spieth was asked how his wrist felt. “It’s good,” he said. “It’s not so much the wrist, it’s kind of up in the arm and the administration of that. That was kind of what caused the ulnar nerve to drop out of some things.” He added, “I would say from December onwards it’s been really solid, I’ve been on the right track.”
And yet the wrist continued to bother him — and his game.
After a promising start to the season (3rd in Maui, T6 in Phoenix), Spieth began to struggle, missing cuts at the Players, Valspar and Masters. A week after the Masters, at RBC, Spieth described his injury to AP as “a thing that comes and goes,” adding, “I could surprisingly turn the wrong way coming off the ground and I couldn’t play tomorrow. But I can play the day after.” He added, “the ulnar side of the wrist is difficult to heal.”
In Spieth’s 11 starts since the Masters, he hasn’t recorded a single top-20 finish. He has dropped to No. 39 in the world and No. 63 in the 2024 FedEx Cup rankings as this week he prepares to play in the final regular-season event of the year, the Wyndham Championship, in Greensboro, NC Spieth is mathematically guaranteed a spot in the FedEx top 70 going into the first round of the playoff in Memphis, but he’ll need a strong finish there to climb to the top 50 who advance to the second playoff event, the BMW Championship, and punch their tickets into next season’s Signature Events. For a player who won three majors before turning 24, Spieth has a lot at stake over the next two weeks.
“It’s not hurting,” Spieth, now 31, said Tuesday in Greensboro when asked about his wrist, “but subconsciously it’s hard not to look at the numbers and think this isn’t a fluke.”
At Wyndham, Spieth lost after rounds of 67 and 71, and a week later, he tied for 68th in the 70-player field at the FedEx St. Louis event. Jude, ending his season and starting him on the road to surgery and rehabilitation.
“I like to think that hopefully I have 10 to 15 years of prime time and some of my best golf left,” Spieth said before the Wyndham, “so I’m going to be optimistic about the process.”
