The green shoots in Jordan Spieth‘s game that started at the beginning of last year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and which, with some slight stumbles, held up until the start of this 2024, seem to have faded. The Texan golfer is not recovering his best version, weighed down by a chronic injury in a wrist. A strange ailment that does not prevent him from playing or cause him pain, but that somehow influences him in certain aspects when hitting the ball.
This week, in the run-up to the Wyndham Championship, the ‘wonder boy’ has delved into this problem, which he faces with optimism and with the intention of continuing to play golf competitively for many more years, but aware that he needs a solution. A change that he still doesn’t know how to face, but hopes to be able to carry out during the off-season, after the FedEx playoffs, already thinking about next year.
“2024 has been frustrating because it may have been my best year with the driver, but then with the irons the impact with the ground is greater, and considering that they are my bread and butter, they have made me quite bad. I have no pain, but unconsciously… I don’t know, it’s hard to look at the numbers and not think that this is not a coincidence,” explained the Texan golfer in his press conference prior to this last event of the regular season before the final series.
“I have no pain, but unconsciously… I don’t know, it’s hard to look at the numbers and not think that this is not a coincidence”
“I have travelled a lot to be in contact with a lot of doctors, to carry out new tests and find out what the next step is. I may have to do something in the off-season. I’m going to pretend that nothing is happening, fully trust that I will be able to fix it. I know that there are many golfers who have suffered similar situations and have managed to come back better than ever. I like to think that I have 10 or 15 years of fullness and my best golf ahead of me, so I will be optimistic with the process,” he added.
“But it is true that I still don’t know exactly what I will do and where I will do it. But, unfortunately, it is clear that something has to be done…. I have never experienced anything like this before. I just try to take my time and make sure that things are done in the right way and at the right time,” insisted Spieth.
Asked about the details of his injury, he said: “I don’t feel any pain playing, that’s the most confusing thing of all. If I did, I wouldn’t have played anymore. Everything happens off the field, weird things where my tendon comes out, subluxes or dislocates out of place and then I have to put it back in because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to even pick up a club. It’s a problem, it hasn’t made me withdraw from any competition, but it’s a strange scenario and a bit frustrating because I would have liked to know what the answer is.”
“my tendon comes out, subluxes or dislocates out of place and then I have to put it back in because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to even pick up a club”
How long has Jordan been pain-free? “Well, all the time. I mean, I’m pain-free until it subluxes, at that moment I do suffer a lot of pain until I recover it”. Because this problem has nothing to do with the discomfort he suffered years ago in the same area: “In the same hand I had a bone spur back in 2021, but it’s not related to this issue, now I don’t feel any pain in the swing. But it’s something that happened in May last year, then in October… and now every two weeks or even every week”.
“As far as I understand, I think it has no cure or improvement, so it’s more a decision about a lifestyle. Because when I’m hitting the ball I’m not thinking about it, I’m not thinking about it, but I don’t know if subconsciously I do, it’s hard to measure it. I have no excuses related to pain, there’s no reason to be thinking that you’re going to have to play with pain or you’re not going to be able to give your best,” concluded Spieth, who needs a ‘reset’ to recover his best version once again.
