If someone plays your ball

And you see them doing it but you are not 100% sure it was yours.  You get to where your ball should have been but it's not there.  What happens, back to the previous spot and treat as a lost ball or drop a ball where you think it was played fom by the other person?

If you have any incling that someone may be playing your ball, You ask them ( I take it was someone from another hole ).  you go back to where you last played with shot and distance.

Dave CAC handed Geordie

Rule 15-3

(Strokes made by a competitor with a wrong ball do not count in his score.)  If the wrong ball belongs to another competitor, its owner must place a ball on the spot from which the wrong ball was first played.......

Stephen, provided it is 'known or virtually certain' that another person has played your ball you can drop another ball where your own lay and continue play without penalty.  The trouble is satisfying the 'known or virtually certain' bit.

I'd just drop another one and whack it.....straight at the tw*t who had just played my ball.

The problem here is that people are not checking that the golf ball they are about to play is actually their one!

How hard can it be to confirm that the ball is actually yours?

The problem is that there are far too many people out there playing golf who are not golfers!

They don't mark their golf ball, have no idea what golf ball they are playing with, etc.

How many times have you hit your drive onto the wrong fairway only to see the group coming up that hole pick up (or are about to pick up) your golf ball?

Remember, just because people are on a golf course, and have all the correct equipment, it doesn't make them golfers!!!!

Russ

Too true Russ and it oesn't seem to make any difference if you're playing at the more established clubs which is a shame. It's a pain if you leak a ball onto an adjacent fairway keeping one eye on your ball and the fourball coming towards it. I've known people pick balls up and put them in their bag, never mind playing them when they know it's not theirs. Give them a bollocking and report them to the committee.