Five questions with Jordan Spieth, who dishes on his wrist surgery

Jordan Spieth's wrist is immobilized after undergoing surgery on his left wrist so he probably wasn't cradling his phone when he conducted a revealing interview on Wednesday with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio channel. Guessing Spieth was on a headset when he shared more details on the extent of the wrist injury, saying the dislocation he was experiencing happened “20-some-odd times since February.”

Spieth noted that it would pop out and he'd have to put the tendon back in place, occasionally shortly before his tee time. On the Friday before the second round of the John Deere Classic in July, he thought he was going to have to withdraw and even reached out to caddie Michael Greller to let him know his season might be over.

"I actually texted Michael like, ‘Hey man, it came out last night, it hasn't gone back in overnight. And I can't do this. I gotta go get this thing fixed now.’ So that Friday of the John Deere, I was calling it quits actually. It was an afternoon tee time and I actually ended up getting to the range about 15 minutes before my time because I finally got it in and just said let's just see what happens here this week, and then I can reassess after if I play through the Open or whatever," Spieth explained.

He powered on and attempted to make the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, if not the top 30, but flamed out of the BMW Championship, finishing in 63rd place. He didn't waste time having surgery, which he termed a success.

"Anytime a guy who does, you know, 30,000-to-40,000 surgeries is excited about something, you know, that's reason for me to feel good about it, I guess," he told Knost and The Sleezeman.

Initially, Spieth thought he might be able to return and play in either the Hero World Challenge or PNC Championship with his father in December as a test run but he may have to wait until the PGA Tour returns to action in Hawaii in January at the Sony Open. He won't be able to start taking full swings, he said, until 12 weeks, which would be mid-November.

"I don't know exactly how long that'll take to be game-ready from there," he said. "I don't know if that's two weeks and you feel good, or if it's two months and you feel good, but should be plenty fine by the new year. I just don't know if I'd be able to play any of the kind of events in December as tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch right now."

For the complete Q&A, scroll down for more.

Colt Knost: How are you feeling? How'd the surgery go?

Jordan Spieth: “Yeah, I was told it went well. I don't remember much of it (laughs). I guess by about week 10 or 12, we'll really know. But Doc said he did a good job. They found some things that he thought were maybe in there that some of the MRIs weren't showing and so he was pretty excited about that, which makes me excited. Anytime a guy who does, you know, 30 to 40,000 surgeries is excited about something, you know, that's reason for me to feel good about it, I guess.

"First couple weeks in now it's kind of just kind of a let it set in and recover and fortunately I'm able to start very, very, very minimal kind of passive physical therapy already to try to get some range of motion back. But in due time it should be better than it was before. And it's something, like you said, that's been bothering me for a while. So I think I can only look really positively about the entire situation and now that we get an offseason and, you know, I didn't make it over to BMW, I was like, let's just get this done so I can try to be ready by the new year.”

Drew Stoltz: How long has this wrist been an issue for you when you first started to notice like, hey, something doesn't feel right? And was there ever any thought during this season of having the surgery or was it always you were gonna wait till the end?

Spieth:  “It's a good question. You know, technically this wrist I messed up training back in like late ‘17, beginning of 2018. And I didn't get it fixed maybe then and I kind of got into some bad habits and then as I started to swing it better a few years ago it started to kind of act up again. And then ultimately I had an incident last May, a little over a year ago when I was with my son in the pool and I was just kind of getting out and something popped and I couldn't move it. I had to withdraw from the Byron the next week.

"And it's kind of been something this year where that kind of dislocation has happened, you know, 20-some-odd times since February and it started to happen more and more. So it was something that couldn't fix itself with rest, unfortunately. So that's why I ended up having to do this. So the answer, I mean, it's been a while in general, so hopefully, this cleans everything up from that original incident.”

Stoltz: Would you ever consider doing it during the season this year? Was it playable enough that you just said, I'll wait till the end?

Spieth: “You know, it's been weird. It was like, it didn't bother me much golfing. It would always happen off the golf course, but I mean, it would happen sometimes within an hour of like teeing off at a couple different times. But I would be able to kind of get the tendon back in place. So this is one of those things like, man, this isn't sustainable. But there was one day, it was the Friday of John Deere this year where I actually texted Michael like, ‘Hey man, it came out last night, it hasn't gone back in overnight. And I can't do this. I gotta go get this thing fixed now.’ So that Friday of the John Deere, I was calling it quits actually. It was an afternoon tee time and I actually ended up getting to the range about 15 minutes before my time 'cause I finally got it in and just said let's just see what happens here this week, and then I can reassess after if I play through the Open or whatever.

"So yeah, late this year it just started to happen more and more. So there was that one specific time there where I remember, you know, I'm withdrawing and I gotta go get this done. But it was just gonna be another three or four weeks of play and see if I can maybe put something together to get to that top 50 or top 30, knowing that I was for sure at that point gonna have the operation when my season ended.”

Knost: Well the good news is you got it fixed, but looking back at your year, Jordan, I mean, you arguably drove the golf ball better than you ever have. So obviously, I guess driving the golf ball, hitting off a tee didn't really bother the wrist, but the iron game wasn't what we're used to seeing from you.

Spieth:  “Yeah, it was, the closer I got to the green, the more kind of ground impact, anytime I had upslope shots, it was just, it didn't, like I said I really didn't wanna make any excuses for myself the whole year 'cause it wasn't hurting to hit the shot. And then I'd get into competition and then I'd just bail. It was very strange. And so I guess it was a big enough sample size over a year, you'd think it frustrates you after a week or two, but for me, I just kind of kept thinking, you know, hey, this is just something mechanically I gotta fix. And at least now I have some clarity, right? I'm not blaming everything on it, but there was something there that just made me not me. And so hopefully I come back from this and I just don't have to think about it. And I know that may not be the case the first few months I get back into it.

"But from what I hear, I talked to a lot of different players who've had similar operations and a lot of guys across different sports and they're like, look, one day you'll wake up and you'll just, if you're patient enough, you do the right rehab, you listen to your docs and you take your time, there'll be one day where you wake up and you're like, man, I just totally forgot that there was ever an issue. So I look forward to that day. I don't know when it'll be but I imagine hopefully that'll be within the next four or five months and then I get back to being me.”

Stoltz: You mentioned earlier, you said like four to five months. Is that the timeline to return to competitive golf and you playing on the PGA Tour? Or is that like back when your wrist is healthy and you can start hitting shots?

Spieth: “No, I've been told that I should be able to start full swings around 12 weeks, so 10 weeks from now, which is like mid-November. And then I just, I don't know exactly how long that'll take to be game-ready from there. I don't know if that's two weeks and you feel good, or if it's two months and you feel good, but should be plenty fine by the new year. I just don't know if I'd be able to play any of the kind of events in December as tune-ups or anything. That seems like a stretch right now. But I'm also immobilized two weeks in, so everything feels like a stretch.

"So that's what I've been told. I've also been told no one ever comes back too late. I think the biggest challenge for me will be that 10- to 12-week period when I'm able to start lightly training back, I've probably been chipping and putting for a week or two, and just taking it so slow and steady. I think that's gonna be the biggest challenge for me.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Five questions with Jordan Spieth, who dishes on his wrist surgery