The last of Spieth’s 13 career Tour titles dates back to the 2022 RBC Heritage.
For the first time since March of 2021, Jordan Spieth has dropped out of the top 50 in the world.
The former world No. 1 and three-time major champion slipped to No. 51 in the latest tabulations of the Official World Golf Ranking, which were released on Monday.
Spieth, who spent 26 weeks at No. 1 in 2015 and 2016, was ranked in the top 10 in the world as recently as the week of April 16, 2023, after losing a playoff to Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage. But he has been in a tailspin ever since. After recording a third at The Sentry, the season opener, and a T-6 at the WM Phoenix Open, Spieth notched only one more top 10 all season and finished 62nd in the FedEx Cup. His last of 13 career Tour titles dates back to the 2022 RBC Heritage.
Jordan Spieth signs autographs near the No. 9 green during the 2024 Masters Tournament Par 3 Contest at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network)
Spieth originally complained of a wrist injury the week before the 2023 PGA Championship, withdrawing from his hometown event, the Byron Nelson, which at the time was sponsored by AT&T.
“I kept trying not to make excuses for myself because it didn’t hurt when I was swinging,” Spieth said in August. “But it doesn’t seem coincidental based on the amount of time, and really the results being the exact same every single week. So I’m very hopeful.”
He began the year at No. 15 in the world but missed the cut at the Masters and Players Championship and his best result in the other three majors was a T-25 at the British Open.
“I think it’s a great break for me. I’m gonna look at it that way, but at the same time, it’s like, in the middle of this, what can I be doing to stay sharp? What adjustments can I make? I’ll be kind of wet concrete coming back so I’ll be able to kind of mold things where I’ve been maybe struggling in some of my mechanics, I can get those mechanically sound,” he said. “I’ve got enough time to wait until they’re very sound before I need to come back and be 100 percent. I’ve got to get the mobility back first and I need to get full mobility back before you then have to get the strength back. So stuff with the golf swing as I start back will start to feel very different week in and week out as I start to get the strength back in my left hand.
“So I imagine it’s going to be longer than a process to be like game-ready than when I can actually just swing a club, but I’m being very patient with it and very happy about the process.”
This list is updated through the 2024 Procore Championship.
There’s a lot of money to be made in professional golf.
Tiger Woods maintains his overall lead atop the PGA Tour’s all-time money list. He is the first golfer to surpass the $120,000,000 mark in on-course career earnings and the only one over the $100 million mark.
Phil Mickelson, before departing for the LIV Golf League, surpassed the $90 million mark. Rory McIlroy is third on this list. He has gone past $90 million as well. Scottie Scheffler is now the seventh to break the $70 million mark. Jason Day was the 11th to surpass the $60 million mark. Every golfer on this top 18 list is now a member of the $50 million club.
With the bigger pots at stake in the PGA Tour’s signature events, expect a lot of movement up in the next few years on this list. There are now 83 golfers who have surpassed the $25 million mark in career on-course earnings.
With that in mind, let’s look at the top money earners of all-time, as measured by on-course winnings. Some of the names may surprise you.
Editor’s note: This list is updated through the 2024 Procore Championship.
It’s been nearly six years since the first edition of The Match, the made-for-TV series of silly season golf events featuring everyone from PGA Tour legends to current NFL and NBA all-stars.
In that time, golf fans have been treated to seven different matches, most recently the first to be played using a mixed-team format.
Even though the first edition of The Match – Woods vs. Phil Mickelson in November 2018 in Las Vegas – didn’t quite live up to the hype, it proved there was a market for the competition. Over the years the matches have grown into charitable causes benefitting COVID-19 relief and HBCU’s while still providing golf fans a unique product outside of 72-hole stroke-play tournaments.
“Focused on rest and rehab, and I look forward to returning to golf healthy and prepared for 2025!”
Jordan Spieth announced on Saturday that he underwent successful surgery on his left wrist last week.
Spieth made the announcement on the social platform X, writing, “I had a procedure on my left wrist last week, as I had mentioned was the plan. The operation went smoothly and I’m grateful for the exceptional medical team and support of Annie and my family. Focused on rest and rehab, and I look forward to returning to golf healthy and prepared for 2025!”
Spieth was winless this season and finished the regular season at No. 63 in the FedEx Cup standings. He only made it into the first playoff event at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis and finished T-68. He previously said both at the Wyndham Championship earlier this month and in Memphis that he would require off-season surgery to repair his wrist, which has bothered him for 16 months.
“I’ve got to have it operated on ASAP, and then I’ll go through the process of what I’m supposed to do from there,” Spieth said in Memphis.
He previously stated that the recovery time is approximately three months, with physical therapy starting after the sixth week. He said he could possibly play in the Hero World Challenge in December or the PNC Championship with his father the weekend before Christmas.
Spieth originally complained of a wrist injury the week before the 2023 PGA Championship, withdrawing from his hometown event, the Byron Nelson, which at the time was sponsored by AT&T. Spieth is a longtime AT&T ambassador. Spieth, 31, is the winner of three majors and 13 Tour titles. He began the year at No. 15 in the world and has fallen to No. 44 in the Official World Golf Ranking in what he termed one of his most frustrating seasons.
“I kept trying not to make excuses for myself because it didn’t hurt when I was swinging,” Spieth said. “But it doesn’t seem coincidental based on the amount of time, and really the results being the exact same every single week. So I’m very hopeful.”
“I think there’s some clarity in getting it done,” he added. “There’s also some uncertainty, and so it’s a little scary. But also, if I can learn to find some patience — which I’m not very good at doing — then I think I could come back stronger.”
The most important number at the Wyndham is 70 – that’s how many players will advance into the first of the three playoffs events.
As the final tournament of the FedEx Cup regular season, the Wyndham Championship usually attracts a handful of big names looking for one last chance to salvage a season or secure a playoff run that will pave the way for future glory. The tournament landed none bigger to sign up for a week in Greensboro, North Carolina, this year than three-time major champ Jordan Spieth, who at No. 63 in the season-long FedEx Cup standings has work to do if he plans to make a deep playoff run and also needs to improve his world rank, which has dipped to No. 37. Spieth lost a playoff to Patrick Reed at tournament host Sedgefield Country Club in 2013.
Spieth may need to write for sponsor invites to play in some of his favorite events next season such as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am if he doesn’t work his way into the top 50 and qualify for the second leg of the playoffs at the BMW Championship, which secures a berth in the signature events after next week’s playoff event in Memphis.
Spieth isn’t the only marquee name who signed up for the humidity and southern hospitality that this pocket of the Tarheel State is famous for – at least this time of year for the humidity.
Sungjae Im, who is ninth in the FedEx Cup, and Shane Lowry at 10th, are both looking to protect their status in the Comcast Business Top 10, which pays a hefty bonus to the top 10 in the season-long points race after the Wyndham Championship. Akshay Bhatia, who grew up just down the road in Wake Forest, North Carolina, is ranked 15th in the FedEx Cup, and Scot Robert MacIntyre at No. 17, still could sneak in and possibly bounce them — or someone else who decided to rest up for the playoffs — out.
Last year’s British Open champ Brian Harman, ranked 15th in the world and U.S Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, No. 21 in the world, Wake Forest University grad Cameron Young, 24th in the world, as well as Billy Horschel, No. 33, in the world, are prominent figures who aren’t stressing about their playoff position but still angling to improve their chances of finishing in the top 30 and a spot in the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Finishing in the top 50 has never been a bigger deal and that has the likes of another Wake product, Will Zalatoris, No. 45 in the FedEx Cup, Harris English, No. 48, Austin Eckroat, No. 49, Nick Taylor, No. 50, Patrick Rodgers No. 51, and Justin Rose, who catapulted to No. 52 with his runner-up finish at the British Open a few weeks ago, all trying to scoot in or hang on for dear life to a spot in the top 50 – which will be determined next week in Memphis. But playing well at the Wyndham could go a long way to helping their chances and making the St. Jude (relatively) stress-free.
The most important number at the Wyndham is 70 – that’s how many players will advance into the first of the three playoffs events. Emiliano Grillo, who is representing Argentina in the Olympics this week, is No. 68, and France’s Olympian Victor Perez, No. 71, are coming all the way from Paris to battle the top-70 bubble. Brendon Todd is the current “Bubble Boy” at No. 70.
Lucas Glover lines up a putt on the first green during the final round of the John Deere Classic golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Cress-USA TODAY Sports
Lucas Glover, who is No. 76 in the FedEx Cup, is in much better shape than he was last year heading into the Wyndham Championship — he was No. 112 — before he won the title to back-door his way into the playoffs, but he’s still got work to do if he’s going to have a shot to defend the following week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Matt Kuchar, who is the only player to qualify for all 17 editions of the playoffs, is coming off a T-3 at the 3M Open but still has a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to keep that streak alive. He enters the Wyndham Championship at 113th in the FedEx Cup standings. As the saying goes, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
There are others who not only have playoffs to consider but also Presidents Cup hopes. The biennial event between the U.S. and the International Team will be held in late September and the window for qualifying on points or to make a good impression for a captain’s pick is winding down. No matter who you are in the field of 156 at the Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield CC, there’s something to play for at the 35th and final regular season Tour stop.
Saying that Justin Thomas has struggled on the greens this season is like saying the wind golfers typically contend with on Scotland’s famous links courses is nothing but a refreshing summer breeze. Statistically, the 31-year-old has been one of the worst putters on the PGA Tour this season, ranking 157th out of 175 players in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Knowing that, maybe it should not be a surprise that the two-time PGA Championship winner has made a putter change this week at the Genesis Scottish Open.
Thomas had been using a custom-made Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5 for several seasons, and he used that putter to win both of his major championships, but this week at the Renaissance Club, he added a prototype Scotty Cameron Phantom 9.2 putter to his bag.
“Paul Vizanko of Scotty Cameron had made one for Jordan, just for him to have and to mess with and to see how he liked it,” Thomas said on Thursday. “I happened to be staying with Jordan a couple of times over that stretch when he got it, and I picked it up and thought it looked amazing. I thought it felt great, and talking with Paul about it, there were a lot of characteristics in the way the putter was built that helped a pretty good amount of my bad tendencies, I would say, that are in my stroke. It’s just able to help that, so I asked them to make me up one and send me one.”
Phantom 9.2 has a plumber’s neck hosel that has been hand-welded to the head, and is fitted with the same SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour grip that Thomas had on his previous putter. What is new, however, is Thomas’ putter (like Spieth’s prototype) is fitted with a graphite shaft made by UST Mamiya labeled ‘Scotty Cameron Xperimental Prototype.’
Before this week at the Scottish Open, where Thomas shot an opening-round 62 before carding a 72 on Friday, Thomas had never used a graphite-shafted putter in competition. Scotty Cameron has also never sold a graphite-shafted putter at retail.
Thomas’s putter has a short black alignment line extending back from the topline. It does not extend all the way to the back of the putter, but instead stops after about an inch. There are weights in the heel and toe area of the sole so Vizanko and others at Scotty Cameron can adjust the swing weight for Thomas. The Phantom 9.2’s overall shape is very similar to Phantom 9.5 that is currently in pro shops, but there are no milling marks on the top of Thomas’s putter
There’s a soft spot in Jordan Spieth’s heart for TPC Deere Run, the site of his first PGA Tour win.
There’s certainly a soft spot in Jordan Spieth’s heart for TPC Deere Run, the site of the Texan’s first PGA Tour win back in 2013. Two years later, Spieth won a second John Deere Classic.
And with that track record of success in Silvis, Illinois, it’s not surprising Spieth would consider the course one for the taking, a thought he backed up after shooting a 67 on Friday.
“It’s one of the probably bottom-half easier golf courses. It’s a great golf course. When it’s soft it’s one of the easiest ones we play,” Spieth said after his second round. “Yeah, I can make a move, but everyone is going to make a move. So I will try and beat the field average by four or five shots, but that is going to take shooting 8- or 9-under.
“So it’s not like it’s a walk in the park. You still have to hit nice shots.”
During Saturday’s third round, Spieth did exactly what he said he’d need to do, using a white-hot front nine to fire a 63 and get back into the tournament after 54 holes. Spieth sits at 14 under and while he’s not at the top of the leaderboard, he can see it from where he’s sitting. It marked his best round of the 2024 PGA Tour season.
After a birdie on the par-5 second, Spieth made five consecutive birdies on Nos. 4-8 and made the turn with a 6-under 29. Thanks to two more circles on 10 and 12, Spieth was officially put on 59 watch. But, a bogey on the 13th halted his momentum and he’d go on to play his final five holes at 1 under to cement his 8-under 63.
“I would like to just improve on my back nine score tomorrow from today’s,” Spieth told the media after signing his card. “You know, so that’s certainly something as I make the turn regardless what I do on the front I’ll be sitting there going, man, I want to shoot the 4-under I felt like I should have shot yesterday.”
His previous nine starts coming into this week have been a struggle. Spieth missed three cuts and finished inside the top 40 just three times. But, he’s always loved links golf and he heads across the pond after the John Deere for the Scottish Open and The Open. If he’s found something in his game, he might be a good bet at The Renaissance Club and Royal Liverpool.
Absolutely dialed 🎯 @JordanSpieth keeps it rolling with another birdie at No. 10.
The charge pushed him up 46 spots and for a brief spell into a tie for the lead before the bogey on 13. When asked about having a lull on the back nine, Spieth insisted it was just a two-hole stretch.
“So really the lull was just those two holes, right? If I par there and birdie 14 from the position I was in I shoot 32 on the back and a 61. So anything is probably going to be a lull from a 29,” he said. “It was just those two that I wish I played over, but 14 just — both have to do with how soft the greens are. They made the shots somehow harder because the greens are softer from where I was.
“It’s a great golf course. The only downfall sometimes here is sometimes you hit some nice shots that just — someone can hit from a harder position and is end up being in a better spot. That’s golf. That kind of happens everywhere.”
Jason Day and Jordan Spieth are both making return visits to the John Deere Classic after extended periods away.
Day, in particular, last played it in 2011 but his first time to TPC Deere Run was 18 years ago, or to put it another way, 350 starts ago, which made it his PGA Tour debut.
“Yeah, this was my first start as a professional golfer. I still remember it,” he said Wednesday ahead of the 2024 rendition of the event. “Actually, I think we might have stayed down at the Super 8 hotel somewhere.”
Needless to say, golf’s been good to Day, who has gone on to win 13 times on Tour and along the way he became one of 11 golfers to surpass the $60 million mark in career earnings. Needless to say, his Super 8 days are now a thing of the past, but the memories certainly stick.
“My caddie at the time, Colin, you walk into his room and it had a heart-shaped bathtub right next to the bed. It was like high rent stuff back then,” Day said.
“I tried to come back a couple years ago and my back didn’t allow me to,” he continued. “It’s nice to be back. I know Clair Peterson [former tournament director] way back in the day, you know, 18 years ago, was nice enough to give me my first start here, and I’ve always enjoyed the people and the golf tournament. John Deere has been a special partner to the PGA Tour for a long time, so it’s nice to go over those stories from 18 years ago.”
John Deere is celebrating its 25th year with the Tour in 2024.
Day confirmed that he is not, in fact, back at the Super 8 but instead staying in his motorcoach with his family.
As for the on-course stuff, Day says this week is the beginning of a serious ramp-up to his season, which has tailed off lately. He has four top-10s in 2024 but three of those were back in January and February.
“I think I need a little bit of a spark to try and get something going here,” he said. “Obviously coming into the heavy part of the season. We’ve only got seven tournaments left for the year. Guys that are looking, on the outside looking in on the FedEx [Playoffs], it’s kind of crunch time for them.
“Me personally, I’m looking to try and find the good play that I had at the start of the year and try and replicate that through my end part of my year. I’ve got a busy schedule after this. Kind of goes week on here at John Deere and week off and then the Open Championship, week off, Olympics, week off, then the Playoffs. So it’s stop and start, but it’s pretty condensed. Feels like it’s been a pretty full on year so far.”
Spieth and Day are both hoping that the friendly confines of TPC Deere Run will spark their games.
Clair Peterson has waited a long time to welcome back what he called “two favorite sons.”
Peterson, the former tournament director of the John Deere Classic, once wooed a pair of teens – one a newly-minted 17-year-old pro from Australia and the other an 18-year-old member of the national championship-winning University of Texas team – to the northwestern corner of the Land of Lincoln and Silvis, Illinois, one of the cities referred to in these parts as the Quad Cities.
Jason Day, the Aussie, made his PGA Tour debut here in 2006 and cashed his first Tour check – for $8,200 – while Jordan Spieth, the Texan amateur, arrived in the summer of 2012 and went home with something every bit as valuable as money – confirmation his game was Tour ready.
Day came back five consecutive years, finishing T-5 twice, but hasn’t returned since 2011; Spieth won the title in 2013 and 2015 but hasn’t been back either. Peterson spoke to their various camps every year and made his pitch, even whispering sweet nothings in their ears on the range at Torrey Pines in San Diego in January 2022 that the tournament that July would be his 20th and final year as tournament director.
“Jordan was so gracious but I kind of felt like even at that point they had his schedule together and it wouldn’t work out,” Peterson said.
Day agreed to play in 2022 but ended up withdrawing before the tournament began citing a back injury. Peterson never took rejection personally as Day and Spieth both won majors among their 13 Tour titles and each reached world No. 1.
“It’s tough, once you’re getting into all the majors and the signature events, you can play all over the world, it’s tough to build a schedule and include our event,” Peterson said. “But here they are this year coming back and recognizing that we gave them a spot, it’s exciting to have them here and that’s the value of the relationships, I think. There’s no expiration date on ’em.”
Spieth has been absent for nine years, but his victories are part of the tournament highlight reel that still play regularly in Peterson’s head. Competing on a sponsor invite as a pro in 2013, Spieth holed a bunker shot on 18 in the final round that got him into a three-man playoff with David Hearn and Zach Johnson.
“It was one of the biggest roars that I ever heard,” Peterson recalled.
Jordan Spieth defeated Tom Gillis in a playoff to win the 2015 John Deere Classic.
Spieth prevailed in a five-hole playoff, becoming the first teenager to win on the Tour since Ralph Guldahl in 1931. One year later, he came back for the pre-tournament media day and Peterson invited him to try to replicate the bunker shot. Spieth grabbed his sand wedge and three golf balls and jumped at the chance.
“He took one swing to gauge the sand. We didn’t count that one,” Peterson said. “And then what does he do? He went and sank the god-dog thing.”
Spieth finished T-7 in his 2014 title defense. One year later, Spieth won the Masters and the U.S. Open, giving him a chance at the British Open, held the week after the John Deere Classic at the time, to match Ben Hogan in 1953 and win the first three legs of the Grand Slam. The sentiment of the day was that Spieth should skip visiting America’s Heartland and get acclimated to the time change in Scotland and links golf for his best odds at making history. Spieth thought otherwise and honored his commitment to play — his agent, Jay Danzi, confirmed in a text to Peterson that he’d need three seats on the flight across the pond that the tournament always arranges for players heading to the British Open.
“It meant everything for him to come back against all the best advice,” Peterson said. “As far as I’m concerned he paid his dues for what we did for him in 2012 and 2013.”
Spieth won the 2015 John Deere Classic in another playoff – this time over Tom Gillis – and finished a shot out of a playoff in a tie for fourth with Day at the 2015 British Open, which was won by Johnson, who happened to be on the flight from the JDC with Spieth. Even more than Johnson, an Iowa native, past champion and unofficial tournament ambassador, and three-time champ Steve Stricker, who played collegiately at Illinois, Spieth was the player that Peterson was asked about most often when he made his rounds to drum up interest in the tournament. It’s taken nearly a decade for Spieth to defend his 2015 John Deere Classic title.
“Everyone can’t wait,” said Peterson, who plans to be there both as a fan and a volunteer this year. “They had $35,000 in ticket sales within a couple of hours after the announcement was made.”
Guess who's back?!
Get your tickets to see 2X Champion, @JordanSpieth, back at the John Deere Classic!
Spieth and Day are both hoping that the friendly confines of TPC Deere Run, where they’ve both experienced past success, will spark their game. Day, who is ranked No. 28 in the FedEx Cup, has recorded just one top-10 finish in his last 11 starts while Spieth, who is No. 59 in the season-long standings, had failed to register a top 10 in his last nine starts.
The tournament also features its usual crop of promising stars, including Michael Thorbjornsen, who earned a full Tour card for finishing first in PGA Tour U, Luke Clanton, a 20-year-old Florida State University product who finished T-10 last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and sponsor exemptions for Neal Shipley, a recent Ohio State grad, who finished as low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open, and Jackson Buchanan, the reigning Big 10 men’s individual champ. Peterson compared choosing a sponsor’s invite to the process of selecting an initial public offering in the stock market with hopes of a return on investment.
“There’s no promise that there’s going to be success,” Peterson said, “but you try to do your homework and identify guys in this case that are going to be successful as athletes.”
In the case of Day and Spieth, those picks still are paying dividends all these years later.
Before the PGA Tour heads over the pond for the Scottish Open and The Open — the final men’s major championship of the year — it takes a trip to Silvis, Illinois, for the 2024 John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run.
World No. 8 Patrick Cantlay highlights the field and will be joined by Jason Day, Sungjae Im, Jake Knapp and Jordan Spieth.
Spieth, who tied for 63rd at the Travelers Championship last week, is a two-time John Deere Classic winner (2013, 2015). His 2013 title was the Texan’s first Tour win.
Here’s a look at the complete field for next week’s John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run.
Commitments to the John Deere Classic (July 4-7) include 2021 FedExCup Champion Patrick Cantlay (tournament debut), defending champion Sepp Straka and two-time winner Jordan Spieth.
