Spieth back, set to play at Nelson
MCKINNEY — Jordan Spieth revealed he tested positive for COVID-19, which has sidelined him from participating in PGA Tour events for a month.
But Spieth said he is back to full strength for this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch. Tournament rounds run Thursday through Sunday.
“I’m looking to kind of knock a little rust off that I didn’t think would necessarily be here,” Spieth said. “But, yeah, I feel good. I feel strong. I feel ready to go for a good stretch of golf coming up.
“If there’s ever a good time during the season, it kind of worked out OK. But I was planning on continuing to play.”
Spieth underwent multiple tests at home the week of April 20 with all coming back positive. The positive tests has kept him away from competitive golf for a month with his last tournament being the Masters where he finished tied for third. He won the week before that at the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
Spieth planned to play at the Valspar Championship in Florida two weeks ago (April 29-May 2), but the positive tests derailed those plans. He didn’t have severe symptoms from the diagnosis, although experienced the awkwardness of isolating from his wife Annie at their Dallas home.
“I didn’t lose taste or smell and I didn’t lose appetite, which was nice,“Spieth said. ”But I had to quarantine away from my wife in the same house, which was interesting. I know a lot of people have had to do that over the last year or so. So, yeah, I guess it certainly could have been worse, so I was lucky with that.”
Spieth is ready to return to work this week at his hometown event. This will be his 10th start at the Nelson with his best result a 16th-place tie in 2010, where he made his PGA Tour debut at age 16 as a high school student from Dallas Jesuit.
Spieth, who has gone on to become a three-time major champion and one of golf’s most recognizable names, is hoping to climb up the leaderboard at the Nelson’s new home. The last time he played competitively at TPC Craig Ranch was when it hosted PGA Tour Q-School’s second stage in 2012.
Spieth was 8-under over four rounds, failing to advance to the final stage by three shots. But he went on to win his first PGA Tour event the following season at the 2013 John Deere Classic and has been one of the tour’s biggest draws ever since.
Even though he’s one of the top names in the Nelson field, Spieth will have more storylines next week at the PGA Championship. That is the only major he needs to complete the career grand slam.
Spieth said the magnitude of the accomplishment only weighed on him in 2017 after he won the British Open and it became a possibility. Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015.
”The first time (in 2017) was really the only time where it may have weighed on me, only given it was coming right off of a major win,“Spieth said. ”And then I was playing really well kind of week-in and week-out there. So I felt in form. I felt like I was a favorite going in and it was the last major. And then the years after, I just didn’t really feel in great form in PGAs.
“Every year I go into that tournament, it’s the one that if I could pick one more to win I would pick that one. But it doesn’t really — while I’m playing the tournament, it hasn’t really hit me and added any pressure or anything like that. It just kind of excites me a little bit more going into it.”