Jordan Spieth’s recovery from offseason wrist surgery continues to progress, as he recorded his second top-10 finish of the season Sunday at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches.
Spieth tied for ninth at PGA National in his first-ever appearance in the event and finished at 14 under, five shots behind winner Joe Highsmith, who captured his first PGA Tour victory in Florida.
“If you had told me 14 under at the beginning of the week, I would have shook your hand and gone home,” Spieth said of his score. “It may be even top 10. It’s crazy good golf out there.
“I feel like I’m trending in the right direction. I played better than I did in Phoenix. Phoenix is a better fit for me, I think, maybe. I just throw out Torrey Pines because I did what I always do there. It’s really not a great judge on where I’m at.
“I really do feel like I’m playing good golf at about 60 percent of the control tee to green that I’m capable of doing and still able to come to a very challenging golf course and hit nice shots and shoot under-par rounds. I’m one swing away on Friday from having a chance to win, and that was a 9-iron, which is just a 1-in-100 kind of chunk.”
Spieth’s chunk is referring to his triple-bogey on the par-3 17th in the Bear Trap, when he hit his tee shot in the water then three-putted for his 6.
Nevertheless, Spieth has some momentum heading into the Players Championship. However, he’s not playing this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, an event where he has a pair of top-four finishes at since 2020. That’s part of the reason he was in the field at the Cognizant, trying to play his way into Bay Hill.
On Thursday, Arnold Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders, explained to Golfweek‘s Adam Schupak why neither Spieth nor Rickie Fowler would receive sponsor invites for this year’s API.
“There are different levels of effort from each player. And I will tell you from what I’ve seen, I don’t know that anybody’s written a more thoughtful letter and put more effort into requesting an exemption than Rafa Campos did,” Saunders said. “He’s genuine, he’s kind. He’s a steward of the game and that’s something that mattered a lot to my grandfather.”
Fowler, who finished T-18 at the Cognizant, and Spieth failed to play their way into the API, but as Speith continues to round back into form and chase PGA Tour win No. 14, he’s upset to miss out on playing Arnie’s event.
“I’m bummed not to be there,” Spieth said. “It’s been a great, great place for me, and I really wish I was getting that start, but I needed to play better injured golf last year, I guess.”
Shots fired from Spieth.
The next time he tees it up will be at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass and the following week at the Valspar Championship, where he won in 2015. Perhaps missing out on the API is a fire lit under Spieth, as he searches for his first win in almost three years.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Jordan Spieth sounds salty he isn’t playing Arnold Palmer Invitational
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