'Bummed' Jordan Spieth makes feelings crystal clear after surprise PGA Tour decision

Jordan Spieth says he's 'bummed' to miss out on a spot in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The PGA Tour heads to Bay Hill this week for the fourth signature event of 2025. 

Spieth - and Rickie Fowler - wrote to tournament organisers asking for a sponsor invite but were denied entry into the $20m prize purse event. 

Three-time major winner Spieth, 31, had the opportunity to play his way into the tournament instead with a top-five finish at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches. 

But Spieth came up agonisingly short, finishing just inside the top-10. 

"I'm bummed not to be there next week," Spieth told reporters. 

"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."

Spieth was referring to the wrist injury that has been plaguing him since May 2023. 

He finally had surgery to repair the damage last August and it led to his longest layoff on the PGA Tour since 2012.

Spieth returned to action at Pebble Beach in February. 

"I'm not thinking about it much at all on the golf course," Spieth said of his wrist. 

"I just hope that I start to wake up and it starts to feel a little more normal. 

"It's strange, it doesn't feel unstable like last year; it's just simply beating it up. It's just the scar tissue and some of the inflammation."

Going forward, Spieth was clear that he believes he's on the right track now as he's 'not searching for answers'. 

"That's a big difference," he said. "That just means it'll come. But the problem is I've been so far off for so many years that if that's 10,000 reps, it might take 20,000 to be where I want to be. 

"But I'm already 15,000 in. So hopefully it just continues to get better. 

"[There are] no limitations on the wrist [and] being able to hold the club in the right place going back is a big deal, too."

He added: "I feel like I'm in a -- I have way more knowledge about what I do well and why I did it well and how to get back to doing that than I did back then. 

"I feel like I can do stuff like this every week, and back then it was like a crapshoot."

The 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational gets underway on Thursday. 

Rafael Campos, Mackenzie Hughes, Min Woo Lee and Justin Rose were given sponsor invites. 

Scottie Scheffler is the defending champion.