Jordan Spieth draws a parallel between smoking meat and refining his golf swing as he aims for a career grand slam at the PGA Championship. After wrist surgery in 2024, he seeks to return to winning form after four years without a Tour victory.
Key points
Jordan Spieth is smoking chicken at home.
He compares smoking meat to improving his golf swing.
Spieth is winless in the last four years on Tour.
He underwent wrist surgery in late 2024.
Spieth aims for a career grand slam at the PGA Championship.
Jordan SpiethPGA Championship
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Jordan Spieth was smoking chicken at home this fall.
He wouldn’t go quite so far as to call smoking meat a hobby and says he’d consider himself about a 15 handicap at it but as the temperature of the smoker climbed higher, he realized that smoking meat was a bit like working on his golf swing.
Coming off a full season after undergoing wrist surgery in late 2024, Spieth had seen progress in his game but that last little bit – the difference between making cuts but never being in the trophy hunt on Sunday and getting back to the winner’s circle – has taken longer than he hoped. Spieth is winless in the last four years on Tour. Allow Spieth to explain how this is an analogy for smoking meat.
Jordan Spieth speaks to the media after a practice round ahead of the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.
Jordan Spieth speaks to the media after a practice round ahead of the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.
“It got up to 155 quickly and then takes awhile. I was like, 'man, this kind of feels like what I'm trying to do in the swing,'” he said on Monday during a press conference ahead of the 108th PGA Championship. “I don't know if it's that way for everybody and just seemed that way for me right now where, you know, it's there, it's there. It's like close. It's matching what I want to do. It feels good and it's producing right stuff.”
Trying to find the right temperature to get his game cooking at the PGA has proven elusive. He has held three of the four major titles since 2017 (Masters, U.S. Open, British Open) and is set to make his 10th attempt at winning the Wanamaker Trophy and become just the seventh of career slam winner. He’s shown signs that his game is trending. While he’s approaching one year since his last top-10 finish at the 2025 Memorial, Spieth has recorded four top 12s and has missed just one cut in 12 starts this season. His putting, which had fallen to No. 101 in 2024 has improved to 34ththis season.
Q&A
What analogy did Jordan Spieth use regarding his golf swing?
Jordan Spieth compared refining his golf swing to smoking meat, emphasizing the patience and precision required in both.
How long has it been since Jordan Spieth last won on Tour?
Jordan Spieth has not won on Tour in the last four years.
What surgery did Jordan Spieth undergo in 2024?
Jordan Spieth underwent wrist surgery in late 2024.
What is Jordan Spieth's goal at the PGA Championship?
Jordan Spieth is chasing a career grand slam at the PGA Championship.
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The clubhouse at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
“If you look at the stats, yeah, it's a whack-a-mole situation because I have had weeks where I'm leading in putting, weeks where I've leading in driving, weeks where I am leading in ball-striking, and then I just haven't been able to kind of put them all together, at least haven't been able to lean on something on an off-day and not have, you know, something be a negative strokes that throws me out of a chance on any of those categories, right,” he said.
Every time he seems on the verge of re-discovering his mojo, something holds him back.
“It's just not quite consistent enough yet to be able to be contending week-in and week-out,” he conceded. “But I know what to do and how to get there. It's just I have to stay the course and just trust that it will happen.”
He said he wished he could have gotten a bit more out of his game the past two weeks but he did get into one of the last groups on the weekend at Doral for the first time all season, which he deemed a positive, and he identified what he needs to fix for Aronimink, and would be spending the next few days working on it.
Spieth has seen the recognition that Rory McIlroy received for completing the career Grand Slam and would love nothing more than joining an illustrious group that includes Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
“It would be amazing, right, because it's just a very, very short list in history,” he said. “If I can win one more tournament in my life, it would obviously be this one for that reason. But the easiest way to do that is to not try to, in a weird way, you know.”
To stick with Spieth’s smoked meat analogy, perhaps his chicken just needs a little light misting, keep the lid down and be patient for that right temperature. There is nothing better than slow-smoked meat off the grill unless, of course, that smoked chicken is part of a celebration for hoisting another major.