Jordan Spieth still managing wrist issue ahead of THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson

Hometown hero and betting favorite Jordan Spieth admits his injured wrist probably needs extended rest to truly heal, but he remains confident ahead of his title chase at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson in Texas.

Spieth opened at +1400 to win the tournament he first played as a 16-year-old phenom but has drifted to +1600 and equal favoritism with Si Woo Kim at BetMGM Sportsbook. Despite the movement, he still holds the highest ticket and handle percentage with the book at 10.4 and 9.3 percent respectively.

The 30-year-old admitted to nearly withdrawing in his most recent start at the RBC Heritage after the damaged tendon in his left wrist “popped out” in the opening round before he battled on to a T39 finish.

His ECU (extensor carpi ulnaris) tendon sheath has a partial tear, making it hard to keep the tendon in place, with the issue first having kept Spieth from playing THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, one of his favorite stops on TOUR, a year ago. He aggravated the wrist in October last year and again during the Valero Texas Open and RBC Heritage in recent weeks.

But now, as he looks to improve on his last two starts at TPC Craig Ranch, which yielded a T9 and runner-up in 2021 and 2022, Spieth took a week off to reset, changed up his treatment routine, and as such comes in quietly confident.

“I'd probably be advised to take more than one (week) in order for it to really get helped," Spieth said on Tuesday, "but it's one of those things like I'm not doing further damage is my understanding. It's just management until I can figure out exactly what maybe solves the problem."

Given the TOUR schedule is really heating up over the coming months with three more majors, the Olympics and the FedExCup Playoffs, extended rest isn’t on the cards for some time. So Spieth will battle on.

“It's a lot of managing it," he said. "I'm kind of doing a couple different things to help treat the symptoms that I experience and to not have some recurring problems that have happened."

“I'm doing a lot of stuff off the course, therapy side, whether it's treating the tendon to treating the nerve in general. You know, I think that that's helping. I kind of maybe got a little bit away from it as I got into a heavier stretch of golf the last eight weeks so I had a couple instances that weren't good.

“I don't plan on that happening going forward with what I'm doing off the course even though I will be playing a lot of golf.”

Spieth’s season has not been to the standard he’d have hoped. While he opened with a third-place finish at The Sentry and was T6 at the WM Phoenix Open, he’s had three missed cuts, a DQ and just one top-10 in his seven starts since.

At 44th in the FedExCup it certainly isn’t panic stations, but he’s eyeing more.

“I kind of wanted to hit the reset button this last week and I took more days off than I usually do," he revealed. "Got a little burned out trying to find stuff. I wanted to take some time off, clear my mind, and then get back to it.

“Kind of looking at this as kind of a restart. I haven't had the year I wanted to have after getting off to a pretty optimistic start in Hawaii. I feel really good about the work I put in since the weekend into the few days this week, so I believe that I'm really close to some great things.

“Sometimes that can be disguised right before it happens. I'm believing that has been the case and need a couple confidence-building rounds or whatever it may be and feel like I can go on a really nice run. That's the plan.”