CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Jordan Spieth was forced to withdraw from the Travelers Championship after 13 holes Thursday when tightness in his shoulder blade reached a point he couldn't swing without pain.
Spieth said the injury appeared out of nowhere, perhaps from sleeping on it in a bad position. He noticed it on the range, had his physical trainer work on him before teeing off and it never got any better.
He was 5 over for his round, with no birdies, when he informed playing partner Luke Clanton he could not continue and was taken off in a cart.
“I’ve never withdrawn from an event ever anywhere at any level, so I didn’t really know what to do. It just became too much,” Spieth said. "I didn’t see it turning around until probably Saturday. These things kind of last an extra day, and no matter what I was going to do, it was just going to be ... I don’t know, it’s unfortunate.
“I’ve been doing everything right, and I think it was just very random.”
The timing was a blow to Spieth, who got into his first signature event this year without needing to rely on a sponsor exemption. His wife is due to give birth to their third child in a few weeks, and there were no plans to add a tournament before the British Open.
Spieth has moved back into the top 50 in the world ranking and the top 40 of the FedEx Cup despite a late start to the season because of surgery on his left wrist last August.
He said he felt a tug on both sides of his neck and upper back as he worked through his bag on the range. He stopped the session to get work on it, but as the round began it wasn't getting any better. The next goal was to finish the round because there is no 36-hole cut.
“It's a weird situation with an elevated event and no cut and important points,” he said. “It's like, ‘Well, what’s the downside if I can finish, even if it’s ugly?’ And then I hit my tee shot on 13, and it legitimately really hurt.”
Spieth tied for 23rd in the U.S. Open and was on the fringe of contention at the Memorial before he tied for seventh.
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Jordan Spieth stretches at the first hole during the first round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
