Justin Thomas offers Jordan Spieth helpful advice to avoid déjà vu in Albany

Justin Thomas has taken to social media to remind Jordan Spieth of a simple golf rule ahead of Tiger Woods' 2022 Hero World Challenge. 

Ben Smith's picture
Wed, 30 Nov 2022
Justin Thomas offers Jordan Spieth helpful advice to avoid déjà vu in Albany

Justin Thomas has reminded Jordan Spieth ahead of Tiger Woods' 2022 Hero World Challenge where to hit his tee shot from on the ninth hole at Albany. 

Cast your mind back to 12 months and you might remember Spieth and Henrik Stenson - now a LIV Golf pro - were both stung with a rarely called for penalty. 

Spieth and Stenson were given two stroke penalties each after they hit from the wrong tee box. It was bizarre at the time... and absolutely hilarious.

The pair joked about it afterward. It all happened on the par-5 9th hole during Sunday's final round. 

Related: Jordan Spieth trash talks young fan in Albany

The American and the Swede were unaware the tee box had moved up, giving the field a few extra yards. 

In the prior days the 9th hole was playing a mammoth 632-yards, but the final round yardage was considerably different. 

The tees were moved forward to where the 17th tee box was. Only Spieth and Stenson were blissfully unaware. 

REMIND YOURSELF OF WHAT HAPPENED HERE:

Stenson laughed it off at the time by saying: 

"I'm still not sure which way we played it, but yeah, we kept our heads down off the finishing out on hole No. 8 and walked to the 9 tee box that we did on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and put the ball down and hit some beautiful tee shots.  
"Then when we went down to the balls and the rules official said, 'did you hit off the right tee box?' And we're like, 'well, yeah, kind of', and then we looked back and we saw that there was another one forward and left. So obviously they switched things around and put 17 on the 9th tee box today and 9 was in a different place and we didn't pay attention being first out and just motoring along.
"Yes, it was just go back and reload. It was only two shots each, so it wasn't a big deal. Then we just kind of carried on from there."

Spieth then chimed in: 

"Then when we went down to the balls and the rules official said, 'did you hit off the right tee box?' And we're like, 'well, yeah, kind of', and then we looked back and we saw that there was another one forward and left. So obviously they switched things around and put 17 on the 9th tee box today and 9 was in a different place and we didn't pay attention being first out and just motoring along.
"Yes, it was just go back and reload. It was only two shots each, so it wasn't a big deal. Then we just kind of carried on from there."

Now JT has posted this hilarious video just in case Spieth forgets: 

The 2022 Hero World Challenge will be without its host in the field. Tiger has withdrawn after he developed plantar fasciitis

Woods, 46, believes that he will still be able to participate in the forthcoming edition of The Match and the PNC Championship with his son Charlie. 

He has been replaced in the field by Sepp Straka. 

Related: Tiger was shooting 64s and 65s in Hero build up

Here are the tee times for R1 of the Hero World Challenge:

All times ET

11 a.m. - Cameron Young, Tom Kim

11.11 a.m. - Billy Horschel, Sungjae Im

11:22 a.m. - Kevin Kisner, Sam Burns

11:33 a.m. - Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood

11:44 a.m. - Corey Conners, Shane Lowry

11:55 a.m. - Max Homa, Tony Finau

12:06 p.m. - Sepp Straka, Justin Thomas

12:17 p.m. - Xander SchauffeleJon Rahm

12.28 p.m. - Scottie SchefflerJordan Spieth

12.39 p.m. - Collin MorikawaViktor Hovland

Next page: Tiger pays tribute to "leader" Rory McIlroy