Jordan Spieth didn’t think he could make it to 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 the injury did not occur on the golf course.
Full field scores from 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 just pushed myself off the floor as he laughed and went back and forth. Something just popped and jammed, and then all of a sudden I couldn’t move it.”
A wrist injury can, of course, be detrimental to any professional athlete, but especially so in the game of golf, where the hands and wrists are in so much demand.
Spieth got an MRI the next morning and went through multiple specialists to try and come up with a plan. Ultimately, he wanted to know if the pain was manageable, if playing would cause more damage to the wrist.
“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 sort of a week-to-week thing because it’s something that could get worse, and if it does, I have to reducing [golf] out immediately. Ideally I’ll get through this stretch and then take a little break in the summer leading up to the Scotsman, and that rest will probably help a lot. But I do a lot of repairs every day that I’m not used to, but it helped.
Spieth said the exact diagnosis is a moderate tendon sheath tear, which could potentially get worse. That potential is what keeps the three-time major champion from getting an injection that would help with the pain.
“This is one I didn’t want [get an injection] because it could get worse and I have to listen to it,” Spieth said. “So I’ve done nothing but Advil as far as there’s anything to be taken for it.”
The former Longhorn is willing to let it fly this week at Colonial, but as for the schedule set in stone, he himself said he’s “week to week.”
