Spieth & Stenson's Bizarre Penalty

Bizarre Mishap Results in Penalty for Jordan Spieth & Henrik Stenson

 It’s been one of those weeks for Jordan Spieth.

His third round ended when his ball moved on the 18th green and he forgot to replace it before hitting his next putt. That resulted in a two-stroke penalty. Thus, with rounds of 71-72-75, he began Sunday’s final round of the Hero World Challenge at Albany Golf Club in last place.

Then, alongside Henrik Stenson in the first group off, the two were involved in a bizarre penalty situation.

“Personally, I’ve never experienced that before,” Spieth said.

Follow along.

When the two reached the par-5 ninth hole, they naturally teed off. Trouble is, they teed off from the tee markers representing the teeing area for the par-3 17th hole. Yes, there is a large teeing area that is home for both the tee boxes for the ninth and 17th holes.

The tee box on the 17th hole had moved overnight to where the tee box was for the ninth hole during the first three rounds. The tee box for the ninth hole in the final round was moved up. Multiple signs were posted alerting the players and information on new yardages were provided on the tee sheets.

Spieth and Stenson were informed of their violation in the fairway of the ninth hole. The two returned to the tee box and hit from the proper tee. Each was assessed a two-shot penalty. If Spieth and Stenson had teed off on the 10th hole, they would have been disqualified.

“We kept our heads down after 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,” Stenson said. “Then when we went down to the hole, went down to the balls. 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.”

Spieth and Stenson turned their post-round interview together into a comedy routine and had a good time laughing off the incident.

“I actually didn’t think we were going to get penalized because it’s a charity event, but then I realized there’s world ranking (points) involved and all that,” Spieth said with a wry smile about when the two were informed of the penalty.

“My question was if we could just finish (in) 19th and 20th (place) and leave after 9, but that wasn’t an option, either,” Stenson said.

When asked if it was an easy mistake to make, Stenson took offense.

“I’m a little offended by that because then you think I’m really stupid,” he said.

Spieth was confused from the get-go.

“We kind of got up there, I teed it up first and it wasn’t my tee, so Michael (Greller, his caddie) told me it’s not my tee. Then Henrik hit. Then I teed up too far in front and he told me to scoot back.”

Added Stenson: “A little note on the tee box would have been helpful, and I will make sure I tee it up on the right tee box in the future because I don’t think I’ve ever done this before. Hopefully, you haven’t either.

“Have a nice Christmas everyone and we’ll see you in the new year.”

This article originally appeared on Golfweek.