Justin Thomas hit with unfortunate penalty while leading RBC Heritage

Justin Thomas’ important weekend at the RBC Heritage got off to an inauspicious start on Saturday at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Thomas, who has not won since the 2022 PGA Championship, entered the third round with a two-shot lead over Si Woo Kim and Russell Henley.

On the par-5 second hold, Thomas drove his tee shot into the waste area down the left side. While moving some loose impediments around his ball, Thomas’ golf ball moved just slightly, which led to him calling over a rules official.

The official confirmed that Thomas was in a waste area and not a bunker, meaning he is allowed to move the loose impediments around his ball. However, the official did note that if Thomas caused his ball to move, he would be hit with a one-stroke penalty.

“My ball did move down a fraction because there’s just some stuff around it, and I was moving rocks,” Thomas said to the official.

“Do you feel like you caused it to move?” the official asked.

“I would think so. I mean, I would assume,” Thomas replied.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to try and replace it where it was,” the official said. “Then, we’ll look at some video footage if we can.”

Thomas went on to par the hole.

This is the first time that Thomas has led entering the weekend since the 2022 Farmers Insurance Open.

The two-time PGA Championship winner almost snapped his drought at last month’s Valspar Championship but Viktor Hovland overtook him down the stretch to extend the winless streak.

Thomas won 15 times from 2015-2022 but is still in search of win No. 16.

 “I want to win so bad,” Thomas said Friday. “I’m sick of getting asked. I almost feel like I’m kind of past the point where fortunately you all have stopped asking me, which is nice, but I would also prefer to get that over with. I think it’s just something I feel like I did so, so well there for a couple of years — I just let tournaments come to me, and I just trusted in my ability. That’s just really been my key this week is I’m just trying to really trust my game and commit to what I’m doing.

“I have a lot of faith and confidence in what I can do. So I just need to let it happen.”