Jordan Spieth says goodbye to the season
"I need to get the surgery done as soon as possible, and then I'll go through the process of what I need to do from there"
Jordan Spieth ended his season on Sunday after just one event in the FedEx Cup playoffs and is already planning to undergo surgery on his left wrist, the same one that has troubled him for the past 16 months. “I need to get the surgery done as soon as possible, and then I’ll go through the process of what I need to do from there,” Spieth said after finishing with a double bogey — in classic Spieth fashion, he made a 30-foot putt to prevent it from getting worse — and a round of 74.
Jordan Spieth, results
The problem is a tear in the sheath in his left wrist that holds the tendon in place. The first tear occurred a week before the 2023 PGA Championship. Spieth tried several treatments to avoid surgery and the wrist never got better and he couldn’t predict how much it would affect him. I have no reason to try to rush my return, I’ll probably take it as easy as I can The recovery takes about three months, with physical therapy starting after week six. He was nowhere near a top-50 finish in the FedEx Cup to advance, so he has time on his side.
“I have no reason to try to rush my return, I’ll probably take it as easy as I can,” he said. This was the second time Spieth failed to advance past the first round of the postseason. He was ranked No. 100 in the 2020 season when the top 125 qualified. Now only the top 70 make the postseason and Spieth was ranked 63rd, needing a top-10 to advance. He finished tied for 68th. Spieth began the 2023 season with five top-six finishes before injuring his wrist for the first time and having to withdraw from the Byron Nelson.
Since then, he has had just four top-six finishes, along with a sixth-place finish in a 20-player field at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. At the time of the injury, he was world No. 10. Spieth was ranked 43rd at the start of the St. Jude Championship. He has missed the cut eight times this year in 21 tournaments: “I kept trying not to make excuses because it didn’t hurt when I was swinging,” Spieth said. “But it doesn’t seem like a coincidence considering the time that has passed and the results, which have been exactly the same every week.
So I’m very optimistic”. “I think there’s some clarity in doing it,” he said. “There’s also some uncertainty, and that’s a little scary. But also, if I can learn to be patient, which I’m not very good at, then I think I could come back stronger”. Spieth described this year as the most frustrating he’s endured: “I wanted to spread myself too thin and I also had some unfortunate circumstances,” he said. Spieth agreed to join the PGA Tour board when Rory McIlroy abruptly resigned last November, just as the tour brought in Strategic Sports Group as an investor in the marketing of PGA Tour Enterprises while trying to secure an investment from LIV Golf’s Saudi backers.
At Pebble Beach this year, he played a practice round wearing headphones so he could participate in a conference call. Even more frustrating was having a good year in driving: he finished 13th in the key statistical category off the tee. Spieth said that could be explained: “Anything that hit the ground was not a good scenario for me this year,” he said. He would not say when he would undergo the surgery, and he has time off. He is not eligible for The Sentry tournament at Kapalua at the start of 2025.
Spieth said that, depending on his recovery, he could request a waiver to participate in the Hero World Challenge in early December in the Bahamas. Otherwise, he has no definite plans: “Except for having two kids under 3, which makes it a lot more difficult with one arm,” he said.
