Jordan Spieth’s frosty response to API snub highlights PGA Tour dilemma
The field at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Lodge and Club will see the PGA Tour’s top stars tee it up, but two notable names will be absent in Orlando. Both Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler were denied sponsor exemptions to the Signature Event, as was Gary Woodland. The coveted exemptions went to Justin Rose, Min Woo Lee, Mackenzie Hughes and Rafael Campos. A fifth exemption is given to a participant in the Arnold Palmer Cup, Auburn sophomore Jackson Koivun.
Last week at the Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches at the Champion Course at PGA National, Fowler accepted API’s decision. “At the end of the day, play better,” Fowler, who finished 101 in the final FedEx Cup standings in 2024, 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.” Spieth — who battled a wrist injury last season that required offseason surgery — was a little more frosty about not being invited to Bay Hill to play for a $20 million purse.
“I feel really good,” Spieth said after finishing tied for ninth at the Cognizant. “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.”
As Fowler noted, both he and Spieth received exemptions into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational. There was reason to believe one or both of them would receive a ticket to Bay Hill because they are still two of the most popular players on the PGA Tour.
