Jordan Spieth has simple short-term goals, 1 lofty aspiration in return from wrist surgery

Jordan Spieth knows where he wants to get to in his return to the PGA Tour following offseason wrist surgery to fix an issue that has plagued him since 2018.

Spieth arrived at this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — a Signature Event — with a clear vision of what success will look like over the next few weeks and what he hopes to accomplish by year’s end.

“Shortest term is to feel like I get through these three weeks and I feel as good or better than I did when I started as far as physically,” Spieth said during his pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday. “That’s kind of a not very exciting goal, but one that would mean a lot. And then I would love to work myself into contention before the Masters at least once.

“And then maybe a lofty goal this year would be to make the Ryder Cup team. I don’t have a lot of points off of last season, so given the level of competition on the American side on the points list, I’m going to have to do some really, really good things in some really big tournaments. That would be kind of an ultimate kind of year-end goal for this year would be to make that team.”

Spieth is currently 65th on the United States points list, behind Gary Woodland and ahead of Jake Knapp.

A key fixture of Team USA, Spieth should be in the running to be a captain’s pick if he proves healthy and finds form this year. However, the three-time major champion would prefer to rack up the points and not put added pressure on captain Keegan Bradley’s plate.

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Now 31 years old, Spieth is focused on staying patient as he makes his return, knowing he still has a lot of golf ahead of him to achieve his loftiest goals.

“A lot of this has been kind of a 10-year outlook,” Spieth said. “I think if I try to make this year coming back from this a ‘must play well,’ I’m just going to get frustrated because even though it was a while ago, I haven’t really been playing golf. Obviously, competitively, but even playing — I haven’t played many rounds since mid-August just because of the process. So I think looking at it from a long-term view as I step on the first tee, take it shot by shot, but let’s settle in, let’s get fully healthy and get some of these shots off these hanging lies.

“Just playing’s very different from hitting a lot of balls off mats. So trying to adjust to that is more short term with kind of a long term back of my mind view of maybe I got 10 years of hopefully similar schedules and set some goals for some wins and some contending in majors and stuff like that.”

Once one of the game’s young phenoms, Spieth is now a father and prioritizes things differently. But he’s approaching this 10-year plan the same way he did the past decade: believing that he is one of the world’s best players and will reascend now that his wrist is no longer a nagging issue to manage.

“I think I still — I don’t think I need to change a whole lot. I think getting healthy and then getting some confidence,” Spieth said.

That starts this week at Pebble Beach, where he is trying to keep his expectations realistic. He knows his game might not come back all at once. Patience will be the key as the Jordan Spieth reboot gets off the ground.

“I think that’s going to be the hardest thing for me is managing that early on,” Spieth said about his expectations for himself. “You know, how much patience will I have if I don’t — I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m in the top 10 entering Sunday here, but my expectation is to — I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m not. You know, I need to get into some rounds. I want to win the golf tournament, don’t get me wrong. Am I hitting shots when I swing it the way I want to that can produce a winning score here? Yeah, absolutely.

“But I think managing them early is going to be really important. I don’t feel that I have any from the outside, so it’s all just my own at this point,” Spieth continued. “I’ve done a bit of everything in my career, so I’m not phased by that really anymore.”

The PGA Tour has had a sleepy start to its season. Many of its stars are making their first start of the season at Pebble Beach, including Spieth, Scottie Scheffler (hand injury) and Rory McIlroy (DP World Tour start).

As the season relaunches at Pebble Beach, the PGA Tour needs a resurgent and healthy Spieth to rejoin the upper echelon of pro golf. If the PIP taught us anything, it’s that Spieth remains one of the game’s few big needle-movers.

Now healthy, the Tour needs Spieth to be that once again.