Do you have to look for your ball?

As it says on the tin. if your first ball is dodgy and you hit an excelent provisional --do you have to lokk for your first ball.

Example---The first at my course is a par 3, with a LOT of trouble all round.

If my first ball heads for the trouble , I wil play a provisional--what would happen if i holed my provisional? Would i have to look for my first ball, with the risk of running up a 6 or worse or could i just walk on and dcelare it lost.

discussed this with my golfing buddies tis morning and someone said a new rule had come out which sadi you must attempt to look for your ball for a reasonable amount of time. Never heard of it myself

What does everyone else think?

I would say that you would have to look for your ball, but I would not be looking very hard if I had holed my provisional. If it is found then one either has to play it or declare it unplayable., with the many choice of options available. The provisional ball is no longer in the game.

I agree with you John.  If you don't want to look for it you can declare it unplayable and then hit your second ball off the tee. However this will not be a provisional but your ball in play.  If you mess up the shot with the second ball you cannot then go back to the original ball if it is found.

John,

i thought if you play & prov & then find your original then this ball becomes the ball in play & the prov is discarded?

John F, if you read my post again I have not said anything different to you. All I said was that if I had holed my provisional for a three then I would not be looking too hard for my original ball as, if I found it I would have to play it, thus agreeing with what you have said. I said that if found the provisional ball is no longer in play.

Matt, if the first ball has not gone out of bounds then it is in play. The only options to you are to carry on playing this ball from where it lies or declare it unplayable and then proceed under the options available, one of which is to go back to where you played the original shot from and adda penalty shot, so in effect  playing three.

I play a lot of my second shots fron only 70 yards off the tee, Matt. I am used to it now.

This is some of the strange senarios with The Rules of Golf.

You don't HAVE to look for your Ball but you can not "declare it lost" so if your opponent fellow competitor wants to look for it, they can. If they find it, you have to play it. Just say its not yours? could be your answer but then that would be Cheating.

Another strange thing about The Rules that is touched on here is the Prov Ball. You hit one that may be OOB so hit a Prov and then find your origional Ball in an unplayable lie where your only option is to play the next shot from back in the origional spot (on the Tee or where ever). In times when Slow Play is a big issue, even though you have a Ball that could become your Ball in play and where you could be playing your 4th shot, you have to return to the origional spot (Tee) to play your next shot (3rd).

TheLyth

David-thanks for clearing that up for me. Just so that i am clear--I do not have to look for my own ball but my opponent can.

So , for arguments sake , if my provisional had stopped inches from the hole and I just went up and tapped it in, that ball would then become the ball in play and my original would not count, even if my opponenet did find it in the jungle.

One other point you could clarify also. I was reading a column on the rules of golf and it said " a ball can not be deemed lost by words alone, It can only be deemed lost by actions".

The 3 actions are :

1) spending over 5 minutes looking for your original ball

2) playing your provisional ball from beyond where the original is thought to be

3) putting a second ball in play without saying it is a provisional ball.

I have had many discussions over this at my club because a lot of players think that once they say the ball is lost , or they turn their back on it or say they had better go back to play another etc , that is final. I say it is only one of the 3 actions above which deems a ball lost

Can you confirm that I do undestand this rule--cheers  

Drew,

You have got it right, though there are more exceptions. Lost in an Obstruction or a Water Hazard.

Only ONE of your three actions is needed.

I have also had lengthy discussions about the wording when putting a Prov Ball into play. The purists out there will not allow "I'd better play another, just in case" to mean "I'll play a Provisional" as many (including me) do.

TheLyth

I have always taken that as five off the tee, so playing six. Perhaps David L knows the answer to this one.

You can hit as many Provisional Balls as needed and they all count. In this case the first Ball's location is unsure so the 1st Prov was hit. That Prov is for the Origional Ball.

It's location is unsure so a 2nd Prov is hit. That Prov is for the 1st Prov.

On finding both The Origional Ball and the 1st Prov OOB, the 2nd Prov becomes the Ball "In-Play" and you are playing your 6th shot.

TheLyth