Jordan Spieth has teed it up in 296 previous PGA Tour events and the only reason he hadn’t finished a week was because of a missed cut.
That was until this week.
Spieth injured his neck during his warm-up before the first round of the Travelers Championship Thursday and was visibly in pain on the back nine at TPC River Highlands. Finally, on the 13th hole, Spieth said he couldn’t keep going and withdrew from the tournament.
It marks the first time in 297 career PGA Tour starts that Spieth has withdrawn from a tournament.
Jordan Spieth on TPC River Highlands’ challenging fourth hole
Prior to the 2025 Travelers Championship, Jordan Spieth talks about TPC River Highlands hole No. 4’s challenge off the tee and from the fairway bunkers.
After Spieth hit a shot from the fairway bunker on the 13th hole, he winced and told his caddie, Michael Greller, that he wouldn’t be able to continue and called for a rules official. He was adamantly apologetic to Greller and to his playing partner, rookie Luke Clanton.
When the rules official arrived, Spieth asked him what he was supposed to do in the situation.
“I’ve never done this before,” he said.
“It was both sides of my neck and upper back,” Spieth said afterwards. “I quit 30 minutes early from my warmup and came back to the table with my physio who was out there on the range … I just wasn’t moving very well … then I hit my tee shot on 13, and it legitimately really hurt. I was walking off that tee, and I’m like, if it’s even harder to turn, then I’m not going to be able to make a backswing that’s even useful, and that’s what happened on the bunker shot.”
According to Golf Channel’s George Savaricas, when Spieth made the turn, he was using a massage gun, taking advantage of a rule that allows players to use percussive therapy devices during competition rounds.
Spieth winced after his second shot on the 12th hole and remarked to Greller, “I just can’t do it man. I just can’t finish a backswing.”
He made bogey there to drop to five over par through 12 holes and then groaned when he pulled his tee shot into the bunker on the 13th hole.
“It’s incredibly frustrating because this was 10 out of 12 [events] for me and I was looking at this being the strongest one, and I was very confident about that,” Spieth said. “Everything I had done in practice and the pro-am showed me it’s going to be a really good event. It’s just a very weird circumstance. It’s disappointing … we’re having a baby here in a couple weeks, so I’ll have some time off now, obviously, to get healthy, but hopefully after a few days I go through the right process to just get right back to where I was. Yeah, it’s a bummer.”
