“It starts with the grip” - Jordan Spieth explains playing his game with a wrist injury

Jordan Spieth is not having a very good time at the 2023 PGA Championship. Although he had made the cut after round 2, he is still ranked T42 on the leaderboard.

Spieth, who was in line to fight for a career grand slam in this major, has been suffering from a wrist injury. Prior to the tournament, he had withdrawn from the AT&T Byron Nelson tournament.

Spieth managed to have four birdies, three bogeys, and a double bogey in round 3, on Saturday, May 20, at the 2023 PGA Championship. The day's play saw constant drizzles of rain which turned out to bring up challenges for the golfers at Oak Hill.

Speaking on rain and the problems he faced due to injury during the play, Spieth said:

"It's just really difficult to keep everything dry. It starts with the grip and then from there, if you get water on the ball or the driver face, the ball can really go anywhere. I was holding my driver face down as I was getting ready to hit and I would set up and hit it pretty quickly."

Spieth at the 2023 PGA Championship - Round Two (via Getty Images)

---

"I've been doing a lot of recovery" - Jordan Spieth opens up about wrist injury and playing at the 2023 PGA Championship

Jordan Spieth, who has been recovering from a wrist injury, was initially doubtful for the 2023 PGA Championship. However, the American golfer managed to recover sufficiently to participate and contend for a career grand slam.

Speaking on his wrist injury affecting his game, he said:

"I've been doing a lot of recovery [on the wrist] every day since I injured it but on course there's been a couple of scenarios where I bailed out of a couple shots that if it weren't a factor I wouldn't have, and unfortunately those shots did affect my score."

Spieth stated that while he believed his injury wouldn't actually trouble him, it hasn't been the case. He disclosed that the injury has affected his scorecard.

The 2015 Masters and U.S. Open champion said that his normal swing was not an issue but flicking a flop shot harnessed his confidence. He said:

"My normal swings, it's not an issue. It's just when you've got to really flick under a flop shot or a bunker shot - I had that today where I just don't have the confidence in it not making it worse, so I just bail a little bit."

Spieth wanted at least two to three weeks time before coming to the 2023 PGA Championship. He also said that the wrist injury cost him a few shots, though he has made peace with it. He added:

"I probably cost myself a few shots on that. But coming in here I kind of figured that might be the case. It's nothing major, but it's significant enough that I would have liked to have had two or three weeks off before this event just to feel like I got prepared."

With round 4 of the tournament still left, Jordan Spieth could still turn things around at the second major of the season.