Jordan Spieth has nowhere to hide after hitting new low in latest world rankings

Jordan Spieth is set to make his golfing comeback outside of the top 50 in the official world rankings.

The American golfer has had another tough PGA Tour season, which ended prematurely after he was knocked out of the FedEx Cup Playoffs. After the St. Jude Championship, Spieth underwent wrist surgery.

His game has been plagued by an injury since the 2023 PGA Championship. This year, Spieth failed to secure a single tournament win and missed seven cuts, including at the Masters.

He's aiming for a return at the beginning of 2025. Undoubtedly, one of his primary goals will be to reclaim his top 50 status, which he's lost according to the Official World Golf Ranking.

With an average point score of 2.0829 in the latest standings, Spieth has slipped to 51st place, trailing far behind players like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, and Rory McIlroy. He hasn't ranked this low since March 2021, when he'd gone 82 events - or 1,351 days - without a win.

His losing streak was broken with a triumph at the 2021 Texas Open. His career trajectory hasn't been as many predicted after he reached the sport's zenith in 2015.

He clinched the Masters and the U.S. Open before coming second in the PGA Championship, which catapulted him to world No. 1. He maintained this position for a total of 26 weeks across 2015 and 2016, and later won the Open in 2017.

Spieth is setting his sights on a victorious return to the greens, expressing optimism about his recovery post-surgery. Chatting with Golfweek, he shared his ambitions: "I think that by 2025, by January 1, it's my goal to be tournament-ready."

He elaborated on his approach, saying, "And for me, that would be not just going out and seeing how it feels, you know, but expecting to play at my ceiling. I'll have an opportunity to work really hard on my short game before I can even swing. So I should be able to get back to that work pretty soon and hopefully get that really dialed so that I can then prioritize getting back to hitting balls and then eventually playing.

"I don't know how long that'll take because it kind of depends on how quickly the mobility and the strength come back, but given my age and the way it's progressed so far, those are our advantages to this recovery. But I'll wait till it feels the same until I come back and play."