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SAN ANTONIO — When Golfweek caught up with Jordan Spieth last fall, the former World No. 1 was fresh off wrist surgery, and he divulged a detailed timeline of how he envisioned his return to play and then, hopefully, to the top of leaderboards. Spieth said he planned to return to the PGA Tour on Jan. 1, a bold statement since the three-time major champion had wrist surgery in late August after an early elimination from the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
It didn't take long for the University of Texas product to execute on that timeline, as evidenced by his T-4 at the WM Phoenix Open in just his second tournament back. He added a top-10 showing at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches a few weeks later and he's now made the cut in six of the seven events he's played, including this week at the Texas Valero Open.
He was a little miffed with his finish Friday at TPC San Antonio, where he posted a 38 on the back nine to fall off the first page of the leaderboard. Spieth is still in the mix at 4 under through 36 holes, and he's looking to add a second title at the event to the one he captured back in 2021.
But while his performance has been impressive, Spieth admits life post-surgery has been different, a reminder he receives every morning.
"I wake up in the morning and my wrists do not feel the same, comparably," Spieth said on Friday, just a bit before joining Smylie Kaufman for a special TV segment that included Jack Nicklaus. "My left wrist, just to close my fingers, it feels like it's twice the size, but after 10, 15 minutes, it's fine. It doesn't hurt, it's not sore, it just is so tight every morning after sleeping. So I think I'm a little surprised that that's staying that way.
"But I'm also pleasantly surprised at the performance from my first event at Pebble. I had a couple shots in the first round where I was like, oh, no. Just bunker shots, flop shots. I've had the occasional one here or there since, but I get in thick rough or I get in shots where there's rocks around, whatever, and I'm thinking the same way I thought before I had surgery, so I'm very pleasantly surprised at that."
After rocketing near the top early in the day with a pair of birdies, Spieth dropped a bit down the stretch on Friday with bogeys on two of his last three holes. And in the middle, he was frustrated after missing a 6-foot birdie putt.
It clearly stuck with the 13-time PGA Tour winner, whose last victory came at the RBC Heritage in 2022.
"I've got to get better at closing these rounds out on Fridays," he said. "I had the same problem happen in Tampa (at Valspar). It's not like a trend or anything, they just were random things each day, and this one happened to be misjudging chips which is normally a specialty of mine. I'm just a little, you know, how do you feel when you're on a bad run of cards and like, man. On the last hole, I'm like surely this is going to jump a little bit and run and then that one spins. Like I just never would have guessed it would spin. Misjudging them stinks."
But minor blips aside, Spieth is back to doing what he does best — wowing crowds with a creativity that's second to none. A year ago, on the Oaks Course, he attempted one of the most bizarre shots of the Tour season, when his shot ended up near a drainage ditch in an area few have found themselves. Spieth took a full swing in the wrong direction. The ball ended up in the gutter atop the TPC San Antonio clubhouse, affording Spieth a drop that would give him a chance to salvage par.
It was the type of wizardry the fans in this town have come to expect. Spieth has four top-10 finishes in the Texas Open and has only missed the cut just once in eight starts.
"You just have to drive the ball well here. If you're driving it well, then you should have quite a few good looks," Spieth said. "The other thing is you've got to play in the wind, you've got to flight the ball some, you've got to throw some in the air, you've got to just be a little creative in the height that you hit shots, sometimes the curve. It's normally just the Texas wind, and the times I played well here I drove it -- you know, I'd been driving it well. So I think that's it.
"The green complexes are pretty funky, so some pins look pretty good and others look terrible to me as far as committing to a shot. It's a little mixed bag."
But back to the goals Spieth had set. Although he hoped to be back on Tour early in 2025, he hoped to be ready to compete by the time players made their annual trek to Augusta. And while his short game is always dangerous, Spieth has seen a boost in distance and speed in San Antonio that could help his chances as he looks to uearn a second green jacket.
"My speed's come back, mainly this week for the first time. I've been about three or four miles an hour short with the driver off of last year and my speed's come back gradually. I was at 68, 69 ball speed a week before Pebble and I'm at 78, 79 this week, so that's a huge difference, which is nice," he said. "For whatever reason, it's faster this week."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jordan Spieth talked about his wrist at the Valero Texas Open
Continue reading...
It didn't take long for the University of Texas product to execute on that timeline, as evidenced by his T-4 at the WM Phoenix Open in just his second tournament back. He added a top-10 showing at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches a few weeks later and he's now made the cut in six of the seven events he's played, including this week at the Texas Valero Open.
He was a little miffed with his finish Friday at TPC San Antonio, where he posted a 38 on the back nine to fall off the first page of the leaderboard. Spieth is still in the mix at 4 under through 36 holes, and he's looking to add a second title at the event to the one he captured back in 2021.
But while his performance has been impressive, Spieth admits life post-surgery has been different, a reminder he receives every morning.
"I wake up in the morning and my wrists do not feel the same, comparably," Spieth said on Friday, just a bit before joining Smylie Kaufman for a special TV segment that included Jack Nicklaus. "My left wrist, just to close my fingers, it feels like it's twice the size, but after 10, 15 minutes, it's fine. It doesn't hurt, it's not sore, it just is so tight every morning after sleeping. So I think I'm a little surprised that that's staying that way.
"But I'm also pleasantly surprised at the performance from my first event at Pebble. I had a couple shots in the first round where I was like, oh, no. Just bunker shots, flop shots. I've had the occasional one here or there since, but I get in thick rough or I get in shots where there's rocks around, whatever, and I'm thinking the same way I thought before I had surgery, so I'm very pleasantly surprised at that."
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After rocketing near the top early in the day with a pair of birdies, Spieth dropped a bit down the stretch on Friday with bogeys on two of his last three holes. And in the middle, he was frustrated after missing a 6-foot birdie putt.
It clearly stuck with the 13-time PGA Tour winner, whose last victory came at the RBC Heritage in 2022.
"I've got to get better at closing these rounds out on Fridays," he said. "I had the same problem happen in Tampa (at Valspar). It's not like a trend or anything, they just were random things each day, and this one happened to be misjudging chips which is normally a specialty of mine. I'm just a little, you know, how do you feel when you're on a bad run of cards and like, man. On the last hole, I'm like surely this is going to jump a little bit and run and then that one spins. Like I just never would have guessed it would spin. Misjudging them stinks."
But minor blips aside, Spieth is back to doing what he does best — wowing crowds with a creativity that's second to none. A year ago, on the Oaks Course, he attempted one of the most bizarre shots of the Tour season, when his shot ended up near a drainage ditch in an area few have found themselves. Spieth took a full swing in the wrong direction. The ball ended up in the gutter atop the TPC San Antonio clubhouse, affording Spieth a drop that would give him a chance to salvage par.
It was the type of wizardry the fans in this town have come to expect. Spieth has four top-10 finishes in the Texas Open and has only missed the cut just once in eight starts.
"You just have to drive the ball well here. If you're driving it well, then you should have quite a few good looks," Spieth said. "The other thing is you've got to play in the wind, you've got to flight the ball some, you've got to throw some in the air, you've got to just be a little creative in the height that you hit shots, sometimes the curve. It's normally just the Texas wind, and the times I played well here I drove it -- you know, I'd been driving it well. So I think that's it.
"The green complexes are pretty funky, so some pins look pretty good and others look terrible to me as far as committing to a shot. It's a little mixed bag."
But back to the goals Spieth had set. Although he hoped to be back on Tour early in 2025, he hoped to be ready to compete by the time players made their annual trek to Augusta. And while his short game is always dangerous, Spieth has seen a boost in distance and speed in San Antonio that could help his chances as he looks to uearn a second green jacket.
"My speed's come back, mainly this week for the first time. I've been about three or four miles an hour short with the driver off of last year and my speed's come back gradually. I was at 68, 69 ball speed a week before Pebble and I'm at 78, 79 this week, so that's a huge difference, which is nice," he said. "For whatever reason, it's faster this week."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jordan Spieth talked about his wrist at the Valero Texas Open
Continue reading...
