Jordan Spieth reveals when he first ‘messed up’ his wrist, says ‘some bad habits’ worsened it

PGA: Wyndham Championship - First Round - Source: Imagn
Jordan Spieth at the PGA Wyndham Championship (Image via Imagn)

After months of complaining of a nagging injury, Jordan Spieth finally underwent surgery to resolve his wrist injury last month. The golfer went straight into the treatment after his season ended at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Following this, the 31-year-old has now come out to reveal how he ‘messed up’ his wrist back in 2017-18.

Spieth is currently waiting to make a return after a successful procedure. He joined Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Wednesday and talked about his injury. Speaking about the injury, the 2015 Masters champion stated that he initially suffered the injury while training in late 2017. However, he admitted to ignoring it. The 13-time PGA Tour winner said he fell into ‘some bad swing habits’ which caused further damage.

Spieth, who hasn’t won a major championship since 2017, said the condition worsened over the years. The golfer pulled out of the AT&T Byron Nelson in May 2023 after the injury crisis became unbearable.

Talking about the duration of his injury, Jordan Spieth said, as quoted by Golfweek:

“You know, technically this wrist I messed up training back in like late ‘17, beginning of 2018. And I didn’t get it fixed maybe then and I kind of got into some bad habits and then as I started to swing it better a few years ago it started to kind of act up again.
And then ultimately, I had an incident last May, a little over a year ago when I was with my son in the pool and I was just kind of getting out and something popped and I couldn’t move it. I had to withdraw from the Byron the next week.”

Spieth went on to reason why he finally gave into surgery instead of considering an immediate fix mid-season.

He added:

“It’s kind of been something this year where that kind of dislocation has happened, you know, 20-some-odd times since February and it started to happen more and more. So, it was something that couldn’t fix itself with rest, unfortunately. So that’s why I ended up having to do this. So, the answer, I mean, it’s been a while in general, so hopefully, this cleans everything up from that original incident.”

Oddly enough, the injury never bothered him much while actually playing golf, but it would appear randomly off the course, or occasionally right before a tee time. He said he would just “kind of get the tendon back in place” and carry on.


Jordan Spieth on his potential timeline for return

Jordan Spieth seems confident about returning for the 2025 PGA Tour season. While detailing his injury, the golfer noted that he only needs recovery now. The golfer claimed he should be able to start taking full swings 10 weeks from now. The 3-time major winner said he could start training in mid-November after completing the 10-to-12-week rest period.

Jordan Spieth said on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio:

“Should be plenty fine by the new year. I just don’t know if I’d be able to play any of the events in December as tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch right now. But I’m also immobilized two weeks in, so everything feels like a stretch. So that’s what I’ve been told. I’ve also been told no one ever comes back too late.”

It is pertinent to note that Jordan Spieth will miss the upcoming FedEx fall series completely. The golfer might also sit out the Tiger Woods-hosted Hero World Challenge in December. He’d finished solo sixth in the Bahamas-based competition last year.

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Edited by Vishnu Mohan