Jordan Spieth should’ve gone the Rickie Fowler route with Arnold Palmer snub

Jordan Spieth wasn’t as calm as Rickie Fowler was about not gaining a sponsor’s exemption to the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

While many of the biggest names in golf will vie for $20 million in total prize money this week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at famed Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Jordan Spieth will not be one of them. And he doesn’t seem too thrilled about being left out.

Despite tying for ninth at the Cognizant Classic this past Sunday after shooting 14-under for the week at PGA National, a solid finish given that it was only his fourth start since undergoing wrist surgery last August, the three-time major champion ultimately fell three shots shy of qualifying for the fourth Signature Event of the 2025 PGA Tour season via the Aon Swing 5.

And that was the only way Spieth was going to get into the field at Bay Hill, as he was informed late last week that he would not be receiving one of the four sponsor’s exemptions, which ultimately went to Justin Rose, Min Woo Lee, Mackenzie Hughes, and Rafael Campos.

Following his final round on Sunday, Spieth, who will next tee it up at The Players Championship, appeared to take a little dig at the Arnold Palmer Invitational’s sponsor exemption committee, which is headed by Palmer’s grandson, Sam Saunders.

“I feel really good,” Spieth said. “The Players, I’ve got to be more patient than I have in other years, and then Tampa will be good. I’m bummed not to be there next week. 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.”

That’s a bit of an icy statement to make, but perhaps Spieth feels his star power should’ve been enough to get him in. The fact of the matter remains, though, that he simply didn’t earn his spot.

Rickie Fowler had a much better attitude than Jordan Spieth when discussing his status for the Arnold Palmer Invitational

Like Spieth, his good friend Rickie Fowler failed to qualify for the Arnold Palmer Invitational via the Aon Swing 5, tying for 18th at the Cognizant, and also didn’t receive a sponsor’s exemption. But his attitude toward not being at Bay Hill was a touch classier.

“At the end of the day, play better,” Fowler said. “It would be a lot easier just having played well last year and earned my way into these events. Been very fortunate and very thankful to Steve John at Pebble and AT&T to get a spot there and Tiger and Genesis to get the one at Torrey. But it’s tough to try and get all of them. Being able to get some of them is great.

“It is what it is. Like I said, at the end of the day, play well and that’ll take care of it.”

Like Fowler, Spieth also received exemptions into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational. So, he really has no right to gripe at this point, as committees can do what they please with their exemptions.

Yes, he battled his wrist injury pretty much all of last season, leading to a lackluster campaign that saw him miss a career-high eight cuts and record a career-low three top-10 finishes. As such, he failed to meet the criteria to gain exemption into all of the Signature Events, as he ended the year outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings.

But that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Injuries happen in sports. So, even with his high profile, he simply has to suck it up and get ready for Sawgrass next week.

And perhaps had Spieth not finished tied for 69th out of 78 players at Pebble or not been one of 18 to miss the cut in a 72-player field at The Genesis, he might not be in this position.

As Fowler so simply stated, just play better.