Jordan Spieth’s fire-ant ruling proves consequential

Jordan Spieth has a knack for putting himself in dastardly predicaments. Sure, he’s on TV a bunch, so golf fans are prone to seeing his wild, wicked and sometimes even life-threatening lies, but still, the guy seems to be a magnet for messiness.

The latest case in point: the par-4 12th hole at TPC San Antonio’s Oaks Course, where, in the second round of the Valero Texas Open on Friday, Spieth blocked his tee shot into the native area right of the fairway. When Spieth and his caddie, Michael Greller, arrived in the woods — this was on Spieth’s third hole of the day — they found Spieth’s ball pinned next to a loose impediment that didn’t look, well . . . all that loose. It was either a large rock or a small boulder, and it would take the might of both men to move it.

“Want to try to do it together on [the count of] three?” Spieth said to Greller.

The scene called to mind a famous (infamous?) Tiger Woods episode at the 1999 Phoenix Open. That’s when Woods, in the fourth round, left a stray shot a couple of feet from a thigh-high boulder. After a rules official confirmed that the rock was not attached to the desert floor beneath it, Woods and his caddie, Fluff McCowan, recruited no less than a dozen fans to help remove the impediment from Woods’s intended line of flight.

Spieth and Greller moved their own impediment with far less fanfare, shifting the rock just a few inches to free up Spieth’s ball.   

“When you’re Michael Greller, when you wake up, you have no idea what to expect,” a commentator joked.

But Spieth wasn’t done flexing his rules acumen.

After he and Greller had moved the rock, they discovered Spieth’s ball in the vicinity of fire ants, which meant he could seek relief under Rule 16.2: Dangerous Animal Condition. According to this rule, such a condition “exists when a dangerous animal (such as poisonous snakes, stinging bees, alligators, fire ants or bears) near a ball could cause serious physical injury to the player if he or she had to play the ball as it lies.” Rules mavens might recall Bryson DeChambeau seeking — and being denied — this same form of relief at the 2020 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

Spieth, though, was given a favorable ruling. When a presiding official quickly agreed that fire ants were in play, Spieth took a club-length’s relief, leaving himself in a much more manageable position than he’d been in just a couple of minutes earlier.

A PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed the sequence of events, saying in a statement: “There was a large rock near the ball and since it was not solidly embedded and could be moved easily, it was deemed a loose impediment by definition and was allowed to be moved. In addition, there were fire ants in that location, so he was granted relief (Rule 16.2).” 

As Spieth took relief, a commentator on the broadcast said, “This could end up being a massive break.”

To which another commentator replied, “I would say 90 percent of the field would have just taken an unplayable — not even a thought of doing something like this.”

Spieth still didn’t have much of a look at the green, though. From his new lie, he pitched safely back to the fairway and made a bogey 5.

Still, Spieth’s rules savvy likely saved him at least a shot — and it’s a shot that proved consequential. Spieth signed for a one-under 71 Friday, good enough to make the two-under cutline on the number.