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.”
