The world number one was deemed to have taken too long with a putt on the eighth – his penultimate hole of the day – under new regulations implemented by the European Tour.
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Spieth, who started his year by shooting 30 under par to win the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii by eight shots, admitted his driving was “short and crooked” for most of the day, but was more concerned with being warned for slow play on the penultimate hole.
“I understand that, if we are being timed and I take too long I get a bad time”, Spieth told reporters.
Asked if there was anything different in his thought process now that he is already a major champion, Spieth said: “I think there’s two ways of going forward with that”.
This is the American’s second European Tour event after last season’s US Open Championship and he looks very at home in Abu Dhabi. “Jordan was assessed a monitoring penalty after his putt on the eighth hole, which I advised him of as he walked to the ninth tee”.
Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy were both befuddled by the “monitoring penalty” the latter incurred during the 1st round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. Leave your thoughts in the “Comments” section below. He [PARAMOR]just came up and said you have got this and I said ‘OK, I’ll just move on with the hole.’ For it to be the last putt when they are 15 minutes behind us and we’re off the hole, it didn’t make any sense to me.
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“It was weird”, McIlroy said. It doesn’t affect this round, but if I get another one I get fined.
“If he keeps striking like that, I’m going to have to make it up somewhere else”. “Sometimes the refs have to use common sense”.
However, Spieth said winning the biennial Ryder Cup with the United States team in Minnesota in September/October was probably top of his priorities for 2016 after playing on the losing side against Europe in 2014.
You would think the same of DeChambeau, but this disciple of Ben Hogan can not be judged so straightforwardly.
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“It’s a real competitive start to the year, and I feel like Abu Dhabi has helped me start the year quickly and well over the past few years, and hopefully that’s the same case this year”. I was hitting it a little off with the driver and I just came out and got my B game into play. “I figured that we’d all be split up, so yesterday I was on the course when I found out and I was very excited”, said Spieth. This is the way I’ve been hitting it in practice. Even at just 22, and without any major-tour time under his belt, he attempted to play it all down. It’s the way I’ve been playing.
