Jordan Spieth didn’t think he would be able to tee it up at the PGA Championship last week.
He was fresh off a withdrawal prior to the AT&T Byron Nelson due to a wrist injury, and we now know that the injury didn’t happen on the golf course.
Full-field scores from the Charles Schwab Challenge
“I was just playing with my son,” Spieth said ahead of the Charles Schwab Challenge. “I wasn’t even holding him or anything. I was just pushing myself off the ground while he was laughing and going side to side. Something just popped and jammed, and then all of a sudden, I couldn’t move it.”
A wrist injury could obviously prove detrimental to any professional athlete, but particularly in the game of golf, where the hands and wrists are asked to do so much.
Spieth got an MRI the following morning and went through multiple specialists to try to figure out a plan. Ultimately he wanted to know if the pain was manageable, would he be doing any further damage to the wrist by playing.
“I don’t feel like I’m rushing things,” Spieth said. “I think I’m on par with following the docs I’ve talked to, and it’s kind of a week-to-week thing because it’s something that can get worse, and if it does, I need to cut it [golf] off immediately. Ideally, I make it through this stretch, then have a little break in the summer prior to the Scottish, and that rest will probably help a lot. But I’m doing a lot of recovery stuff day to day that I’m not used to doing, but it’s been helping.”
Spieth said the exact diagnosis is a moderate grade tendon sheath tear, which could potentially get worse. That potential is what is keeping the three-time major champion from receiving an injection that would help with the pain.
“This is one I didn’t want to [get an injection] because it can get worse and I need to listen to it,” Spieth said. “So I’ve done nothing but Advil as far as anything to take for it.”
The former Longhorn is prepared to let it fly this week at Colonial, but as far as chiseling a schedule in stone, he said himself that he’s “week-to-week”.