Jordan Spit has a wrist problem at the PGA US Championships in Oak Hill. a wrist injury would have forced the American out of the USPGA Championship this week, and so his mission to complete a career Grand Slam, delayed by at least another year, was eased when he completed a full training session on the training ground on Tuesday.
Speth, 29, sounded a wake-up call when he withdrew from AT&T Byron Nelson in his hometown of Dallas last week. This was due to a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship, after which he showed the pain he was working with.
“Over the weekend, I had severe pain in my left wrist and doctors confirmed an injury that requires rest and movement restrictions,” Spit wrote in a statement posted on his social media pages last week. “I am focused on getting better as quickly as possible and I will have to evaluate my recovery every week.”
Spit arrived in upstate New York on Monday evening and began the course just after noon. Despite having his arm heavily bandaged, he continued to rummage through his bag for 70 minutes without any sign of discomfort or restriction.
He then accompanied world No. 1 John Rahm to the 10th pitch tee before returning to the putting green. Spit only played one hole, but that had more to do with the lineup of players on the 11th tee than with protecting his wrist.
Most likely, Spit will at least pass the field on Wednesday to familiarize himself with the restored layout. . He missed out on Oak Hill on his US PGA debut in 2013, but Donald Ross' creation has undergone major changes since then.
If he comes out alongside Irishman Shane Lowry and Norwegian Victor Hovland, it would be the Texan's seventh attempt to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen in the pantheon. finished second at that major in 2015 when he won the Masters and the US Open, but since winning the 2017 Open, the closest he came to winning the massive Wanamaker Trophy was third in 2019.
Spit has struggled to get back in shape after winning back-to-back major tournaments in 2015. Photo: Getty Images/Ezra Shaw
However, there were some bad spells in form during that period and after finishing fourth behind Rahm at the Masters last month, there was a play-off loss to England's Matt Fitzpatrick at Heritage and many pundits marked him as one of the favourites.
But this failure caused him to drift in the betting markets. As the cliché “beware of the injured golfer” suggests, there are precedents even in major tournaments. At the 2008 Open Championship, Padraig Harrington suffered a wrist injury, but without a practice round at Royal Birkdale fought to his second straight claret pitcher.
The pressure will be felt. Spit was not just trying to join the great golfers, but to leave some of them behind. And one of the greatest living members of the latter group believes that his young compatriot has the key ingredient to succeed where he himself failed.
Tom Watson never completed the set. He won eight majors, including five Opens, but the USPGA eluded him. So, he's stuck on a three. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Sam Sneed are just three legends who also missed one.
about his climbing abilities in windy Oak Hill. Photo: Shutterstock/Erik S Lesser
And while Woods and his colleagues are making headlines as the world tunes in to see if Speth can win his first major tournament in six years, Watson feels his young friend has enough power to withstand the heat.
“The media will create it and keep shouting 'grand slam', 'grand slam' to him and he will answer questions, but all he will think about is the tournament, the next tee shot, the next iron shot. , next hit,” Watson told Telegraph Sport. “Because that is one of his main strengths. He has the ability to leave everything behind and ignore what is too far ahead.”
Watson met the Texan while captaining America's ill-fated Ryder Cup run at Gleneagles in 2014. It was Spit's first time, and Watson immediately attracted attention. “Jordan is a good person, a good person who always does and says the right things, and while you can see the winning mentality in his eyes, he wins in the right way,” Watson said. “Golf got lucky with him.
“I had some good shots at the [US] PGA but it didn't happen. I'm not obsessed with it and never have been. And I'm sure Jordan isn't obsessed either. Time is on his side. God, he has all the time in the world.”
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