Jordan Spieth confessed on the first day of the Barclays Championship he was not a fan of the Plainfield Country Club golf course and that view only deepened on day two.
The reigning World No. 1 still has the chance of winning the FedEx Cup but in his bigger career picture Spieth learnt a rules lesson he will long remember.
Spieth’s second shot at the par five 12th landed inside a grass covered lateral water hazard some 45-yards short of the flagstick.
However in proceeding to look for his unsighted ball on a sloope in the hazard the double Major winner inadvertently stepped on his ball that was actually lying under his feet on a flater part of the hazard.
Jordan Spieth is looking for his ball in a hazard at the 12th hole but not knowing he is standing on his ball.
“I was looking where everyone told me the ball had gone in, which was at the face fo the water hazard, and that was the wrong information but then in looking for the ball I was standing on the grass, and I felt something under my foot,” he said.
“So in stepping off, I then peeled back the grass; it’s a ball.”
Spieth informed his caddy and then picked up the ball and played it as being in a hazard.
The 22-year old Texan gave himself a penalty and eventually walked off with a bogey ‘6’.
However he was approached at the next hole by a PGA Tour rules official who asked Spieth to go over the scenario a hole earlier.
Spieth picks up his ball and thereby incurs not one penalty but two strokes.
Spieth’s mistake under Rule 18 – 2(a) was not adding an additional penalty stroke by causing the ball to move in the hazard.
“The onus is on the player if you think the ball actually moved you need to add a stroke,” said Spieth.
“In the future, I would like to be presented the option because I would not have like to have that conversation before I played my second shot (on 13th hole) instead of being told to incur a one-stroke penalty.
“Mentally, I was still saying to myself, I think I am fine, I only need to gain three strokes but you know, I guess I need to make clear to the rules officials, and it’s tough, because everyone will be different there.”
Spieth not only missed the Barclays cut with scores of 74 and 73 for a seven over par tally but he’s also lost his World No. 1 ranking and just two weeks after dethroning rival Rory McIlroy.
Rule 18-2. BALL AT REST MOVED – By Player, Partner, Caddie or Equipment
a. General – Except as permitted by the Rules, when a player’s ball is in play, if
If the ball is moved, it must be replaced, unless the movement of the ball occurs after the player has begun the stroke or the backward movement of the club for the stroke and the stroke is made.
A player of his level should know the golden rule for golf pros: If you have to do something different from “playing the ball as it lies” you’d better call a Tour rules official.
But he is young and he’ll never forget the lesson.