Jordan Spieth has mountain to climb to return to former glories ahead of latest PGA battle

Jordan Spieth is facing a tough fight to keep his PGA Tour season alive for another week as the FedEx Cup Playoffs kick off with the St. Jude Championship in Memphis on Thursday. Spieth, a three-time major champion and the 2015 FedEx Cup winner, has had another difficult season as his decline continues. The former world No.1 has plummeted to 43 in the Official World Golf Ranking, with his last of 13 PGA Tour victories coming over two years ago.

This season, Spieth has missed seven cuts and only managed two top-10 finishes, increasing the gap between the 31 year old and the game’s top players. The Texan just scraped into the 70-man field for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, finishing the regular season in 63rd place. He faces a significant challenge at TPC Southwind to extend his season beyond this week. Spieth needs to finish at least 17th in Tennessee to secure his spot for next week’s BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado.

However, he will likely need to perform even better to guarantee himself a place in the 50-man field in Denver, with players battling fiercely to make it all the way to the 30-man Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta in two weeks.
Spieth’s form hasn’t been helped by an ongoing wrist injury, and he has confessed that he will probably have surgery once his season ends in hopes of returning to the heights he reached earlier in his career.

“It’s been a frustrating year because it’s been maybe my best driving year ever, and then the clubs that I make the most impact into the ground with, which normally are my bread and butter, have been pretty off,” expressed Spieth ahead of last week’s Wyndham Championship. “It’s not hurting, but subconsciously it’s hard not to look at the numbers and think this isn’t a coincidence.

“I’ve been taking trips out as well as being in contact with a lot of doctors, getting it scanned again and trying to figure out what the next move is. Probably going to have to do something about it this offseason.

“I’m going to pretend nothing’s happening, fully trust it given that I’ll be able to get it fixed, and I know there’s a lot of golfers that have had similar situations and come back better than ever. I like to think hopefully I have 10 to 15 years of prime and some of my best golf left, so I’ll be optimistic about the process.

“But I’m not quite sure exactly what I’ll do and where I’ll do it, but unfortunately something kind of has to get done. And I’ve never experienced anything like this before. Just trying to take my time making sure things are done right at the right time.”