Wrist injury has cost me a few shots

Sat, 20 May, 2023 - 19:20

By Phil Casey, PA Golf Correspondent, Rochester

Jordan Spieth admitted his wrist injury had cost him a number of shots after battling miserable conditions on day three of the 105th US PGA Championship.

Spieth, who needs to win the US PGA to complete a career grand slam, was a doubt for the year’s second major after withdrawing from last week’s PGA Tour event due to “severe pain” in his left wrist.

The former world number one received intensive treatment and was able to compete at Oak Hill with the wrist heavily strapped, carding rounds of 73 and 72 to make the halfway cut on the mark of five over par.

Jordan Spieth admitted his wrist injury cost him a number of shots in the US PGA Championship. Photo: AP.

Spieth then carded four birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey in a third round of 71 played in persistent rain on Saturday, adding to the challenge on a course where just nine players were under par at the halfway stage.

“It’s just really difficult to keep everything dry,” Spieth said.

“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.

“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.

“I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case here but it’s only been a couple of times.

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“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.

“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.”

England’s Tyrrell Hatton had defied the conditions to card an impressive 69, a round compiled alongside 2021 winner Phil Mickelson, who had made the cut for the 100th time in his major championship career.

Mickelson is the fourth player to achieve that feat after Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson and also tied the record for the most cuts made in the US PGA, joining Nicklaus and Ray Floyd on 27.

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The six-time major winner may have wished he had not made the weekend however, carding a birdie-free 75 which left him on 10 over par.

Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland shared the halfway lead on five under, with Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Suh two shots behind.

England’s Callum Tarren was another stroke back alongside four-time major winner Brooks Koepka, with Justin Rose on one under and Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry on level par.