Golf fans and commentators were left perplexed on Sunday when Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson played from the wrong tee box at the Hero World Challenge.
While Spieth and Stenson thought they were hitting on the tee box for the ninth hole, they were actually on the 17th.
To spice up the final round at Albany Golf Club in the Bahamas, the PGA Tour moved the tee box forward on the par-5 ninth hole to allow more players a chance to reach the green in two.
They used the original ninth tee for the par-3 17th so the hole would play a little shorter and over the water.
Both tee boxes had a large white sign indicating the hole, but Spieth and Stenson obviously didn’t notice.
The pair were still none the wiser to their gaffe until an official tracked them down as they were walking down the fairway.
“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,” Stenson said.
“Then when we went down to the balls, the rules official said, ‘Did you hit off the right tee box?’”
Had they finished the hole without having a chance to correct the error, they would have been disqualified.
Instead they were both handed two-stroke penalties and told to return to the correct tee box.
It led to a triple-bogey eight for Spieth and a seven for Stenson.
“My question was if we could just finish 19th and 20th (place) and leave after nine,” Stenson said. “But that wasn’t an option, either.”
