East Lake, Atlanta, GA … For those present listening to Jordan Spieth it seemed strange the defending FedEx Cup champion should be talking about dicing this week with Sweden’s Henrik Stenson.

Hold on, wait a minute!

Stenson had not qualified among the top-30 on the PGA Tour money list to tee-up for the season-ending event here in suburban Atlanta.

So why then was Spieth full of praise for the absent Swede?

Spieth had been asked about his chances of walking away with a second straight end-of-year $10m after dwelling a year ago with the Swede but in addressing the question the double Major winner was innocently unaware Stenson had not qualified for this week’s Atlanta finale.

“I think as good as last year. I mean, not quite, I guess, because there is that scenario where — but not far behind. I feel that we have an advantage on this golf course over potentially anyone here except for Henrik (Stenson),” said Spieth.

A year ago – Sweden’s Henrik Stenson watches Jordan Spieth during the final round of the 2015 Tour Championship. (Photo – PGA Tour)

“He’s been here and won it, and he’s been in form. I know he’s been injured, so he’s kind of dealing with that. I think we have as good a chance or better chance than anybody else given we’ve done it, and I feel that comfortable on this golf course. I have no excuses this week. Go out and get the job done.”

It was then the penny dropped and a member of the media popping the question to Spieth.

Q. Did you know Henrik wasn’t here this week?

Spieth responded:  “Oh, is he not? I didn’t know that, no.”

However Spieth was later asked to reflect on his battle last year on the East Lake course with Stenson

JORDAN SPIETH: I love battling out with Henrik. We did it in 2013 here as well. I saw that — we all saw the Henrik Stenson that we know of there, and he brought it back this year. Just the absolute stroke show that he puts on, just so pretty to watch and very difficult to play against.

“Certainly miss him. You want the field to be as strong as possible, and you want, obviously, somebody who I’ve considered a friend, and he’s been actually a mentor to me. He’s been nothing but nice to me since my rookie year.

“You want him to be healthy. You want him to be doing what he loves to do. And I think he’s going to be when we see him up there. It was a fun battle last year too. I don’t think of it as 2013. They were very different experiences.

“Ultimately we both got one on each other, and hope to have a lot of chances to battle out with him again going forward.”