Five questions with Jordan Spieth, who dishes on his wrist surgery

Jordan Spieth’s wrist is immobilized after undergoing surgery on his left wrist so he probably wasn’t cradling his phone when he conducted a revealing interview on Wednesday with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio channel. Guessing Spieth was on a headset when he shared more details on the extent of the wrist injury, saying the dislocation he was experiencing happened “20-some-odd times since February.” 

Spieth noted that it would pop out and he’d have to put the tendon back in place, occasionally shortly before his tee time. On the Friday before the second round of the John Deere Classic in July, he thought he was going to have to withdraw and even reached out to caddie Michael Greller to let him know his season might be over.

“I actually texted Michael like, ‘Hey man, it came out last night, it hasn’t gone back in overnight. And I can’t do this. I gotta go get this thing fixed now.’ So that Friday of the John Deere, I was calling it quits actually. It was an afternoon tee time and I actually ended up getting to the range about 15 minutes before my time because I finally got it in and just said let’s just see what happens here this week, and then I can reassess after if I play through the Open or whatever,” Spieth explained.

He powered on and attempted to make the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, if not the top 30, but flamed out of the BMW Championship, finishing in 63rd place. He didn’t waste time having surgery, which he termed a success.

“Anytime a guy who does, you know, 30,000-to-40,000 surgeries is excited about something, you know, that’s reason for me to feel good about it, I guess,” he told Knost and The Sleezeman.

Initially, Spieth thought he might be able to return and play in either the Hero World Challenge or PNC Championship with his father in December as a test run but he may have to wait until the PGA Tour returns to action in Hawaii in January at the Sony Open. He won’t be able to start taking full swings, he said, until 12 weeks, which would be mid-November.

“I don’t know exactly how long that’ll take to be game-ready from there,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s two weeks and you feel good, or if it’s two months and you feel good, but should be plenty fine by the new year. I just don’t know if I’d be able to play any of the kind of events in December as tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch right now.”

For the complete Q&A, scroll down for more.