Jordan Spieth's participation in The Open hangs in the balance after a shocking injury at the Travelers Championship. Just weeks before the prestigious final major, Spieth was forced to withdraw from the tournament for the first time in his career due to a neck and back issue.

The American star, who had been playing through pain during the opening round, made the difficult decision to pull out. "During warmup, my right scap tightened and despite trying to push through, pain spread to my neck and upper back," he revealed.

"By 13 tee, I realized I had to stop. I've never had to WD before, and hate that it happened at @TravelersChamp - a tournament I love. Thanks everyone for the support!".

This setback not only sees him miss out on the chance to compete for the hefty £17 million purse at the season's final Signature Event but also casts doubt over his appearance at one of golf's most anticipated events, The Open. With the severity of his condition still unclear, the 2017 Champion Golfer of The Year faces a race against time to recover for Royal Portrush.

Spieth's struggle was evident as he contended with discomfort throughout the first round in Connecticut.

After a disappointing performance, the former Masters champion had to withdraw without scoring a single birdie and making five bogeys over 12 holes. Before the event, Spieth was optimistic about his form, saying, "Yeah, it's incredibly frustrating because this was 10 out of 12 for me and I was looking at this being the strongest one, and I was very confident about that," He expressed his frustration after having to pull out: "Everything I had done in practice and the pro-am showed me it's going to be a really good event. It's just a very weird circumstance.

"It's disappointing. I'm having some -- we're having a baby here in a couple weeks, so I'll have some time off now, obviously, to get healthy, but hopefully after a few days I go through the right process to just get right back to where I was. Yeah, it's a bummer. It's a bummer at this event, obviously."

Despite the setback, Spieth doesn't believe his packed schedule contributed to his injury, explaining, "I've had little things here or there that everybody has, a hip thing here for a day or two, just random stuff. It was just totally random."

He also mentioned that he didn't feel any undue stress leading up to the event that could have caused the issue: "It was not overdone. I didn't feel stress coming into this. Like if I was anxious or whatever that would have caused anything to tighten up, it would have been last week, and I had none of that here. In fact, it felt like a relaxing week.

"I think it was just a random one-off that unfortunately got worse and bad enough on a Thursday that I didn't feel like I could continue."