AUGUSTA, Ga. — The left wrist injury that first struck prior to last year’s PGA Championship continues to hamper 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth, including flare-ups twice in the last month prior to the Players and again a week ago Monday at the Valero Texas Open.
“It’s an ECU [extensor carpi ulnaris] tendon issue that unfortunately I’ve not fixed,” said Spieth, who struggles to hold the golf club when the problem reoccurs because it affects the ulnar nerve. “When it flares up, it flares up for like 24 hours, and then it just slowly gets better, versus last May when I couldn’t play the Byron [Nelson] and then in October it was another week and a half or so. And since then, since I’ve gotten more on top of it by December, I at least know what it is and how to get it quickly better.”
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Spieth, 30, first revealed the extent of the problem at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December. He said then that he was optimistic about his 2024 season after getting a proper diagnosis, but the condition reoccurred in January after competing at the season-opening PGA Tour event, The Sentry.
A three-time major winner, Spieth has three top-10 finishes in eight starts this year, including T-10 last week at the Valero Texas Open. He said that he is getting daily treatments for the wrist at the Masters to ensure that he can make his 11th start at Augusta National Golf Club, where he has six top-10s and just one missed cut, in 2022. He finished T-4 last year after a closing six-under 66.
“When it happens, I can’t do anything that day,” said Spieth, ranked 18th in the world, whose last victory came at the 2022 RBC Heritage. “So as long as it doesn’t happen during … typically, as the week goes on, it gets better and better, using it more and more, and I’m recovering more and more than, say, my days off at home.”
Jordan Spieth hits a shot during his practice round on Tuesday ahead of the 2024 Masters. (J.D. Cuban)
He didn’t mention whether or not surgery was an eventual option to correct the condition. “Yeah, it’s something that I don’t think there’s really anything I can do other than rest. And I’m not resting it anytime soon,” the Texan said. “So I’ll probably take quite a bit of time when the season’s over and see if it kind of sets it back in place and doesn’t flare up as much.”
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
