Jordan Spieth is alarmed at RBC after left-wrist tendon ‘popped out’

Jordan Spieth says his left wrist is OK.

Still, a moment on Thursday at the RBC Heritage doesn’t sound welcoming. It was also the latest in a string of incidents for the popular three-time major winner.

Thursday’s episode came while hitting a greenside bunker shot on Harbour Town Golf Links’ 13th hole — and the news was first reported by the PGA Tour’s Paul Hodowanic, whose entire story you can read here. On his follow-through, Spieth said he jammed his wrist into the bulkhead that outlines the front of the bunker — and his extensor carpi ulnaris (ECU) tendon “popped out,” making him consider withdrawing.

“It’s a thing that’s recurring,” Spieth told Hodowanic. “I was lucky because most times it comes out, and I can’t turn it (left), and so I would have been screwed. It’s the ECU tendon. It came out and came right back in its groove.

“On 14 yesterday, I thought I was done for the week,” Spieth added. “Then (the tendon) came back in, and I was like, ‘All right, I’m good.’”

The incident was the latest mention of the wrist over the past year. Last May, he withdrew from the Byron Nelson because of it, though he played in the PGA Championship a week later. Then, in late November, at the Hero World Challenge, Spieth revealed that he re-injured the wrist in a bizarre incident. 

He’d been making toast. 

“I was reaching for a toaster to make my son breakfast,” Spieth said, “and I was just supporting it on the shelf. It made — in other words, everything was — it took the fall for other things that were off and it just made no sense because I’m like, what’s going to prevent this from happening at any other point in time. But I was very shocked when I re-injured it.”

Then, last week at the Masters, Spieth said the injury hadn’t fully gone away, noting he had aggravated it in January at the season-opening event in Hawaii, then again in March at the Players Championship, then again a week before Augusta at the Texas Open. 

“When it happens, I can’t do anything that day,” Spieth said at the Masters. “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. I’m getting treatment daily here. That’s included with everything else that I didn’t used to do.

“So it’s an ECU tendon issue that unfortunately I’ve not fixed, but 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 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.

“But, 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. 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.”

Friday, in the story written by the PGA Tour’s Hodowanic, Spieth confirmed he wasn’t overly concerned after dodging the possible WD. He wrapped the wrist before second-round play on Friday, when he shot a four-under 67. 

“Because my (wrist) sheath is torn, it doesn’t really hold (the tendon) in as well,” Spieth told Hodowanic. ”It’s one of those things, like it’s not affecting speed, anything like that. It’s just– managing it. So today it was just, with the tape the way it’s on, it’s going to inhibit (the tendon’s) ability to create any issues.”

Editor’s note: To read the complete story written by the PGA Tour’s Paul Hodowanic, please click here. 

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.