3 minutes to find ball

[berniethebolt]

When does the 3 minutes you are allowed to look for your ball start? Is it when you start to look? When a fellow competitor starts to look? When a spectator starts to look? For health reasons I use a buggy and can get to where a fellow player's ball might be some time before the rest of the group. Am I disadvantaging him by starting to search before he arrives?

 

[Backache]

See definition of lost .
It's when the player or their caddie starts to look for it or if a four ball/ foursome the players partner or partners caddie. You are slightly advantaging him by looking for it before he arrives.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

See definition of lost .
It's when the player or their caddie starts to look for it or if a four ball/ foursome the players partner or partners caddie. You are slightly advantaging him by looking for it before he arrives.

This was specifically raised at a rules evening pre season I was at. The question has been asked a couple of times this season in my group so I was pleased to be able to give the answer, as you have described it. Unlike some of the more obscure rules this is one you are likely to come across so well worth knowing.

 

[jim8flog]

When does the 3 minutes you are allowed to look for your ball start? Is it when you start to look? When a fellow competitor starts to look? When a spectator starts to look? For health reasons I use a buggy and can get to where a fellow player's ball might be some time before the rest of the group. Am I disadvantaging him by starting to search before he arrives?

As described above it depends on what you mean by fellow players, i.e. fellow competitors or a playing partner.

PS I do the same as you as a buggy user simply because it helps to speed things up.

 

[berniethebolt]

18.2a Thanks

 

[duncan mackie]

See definition of lost .
It's when the player or their caddie starts to look for it or if a four ball/ foursome the players partner or partners caddie. You are slightly advantaging him by looking for it before he arrives.

Exactly

 

[Colin L]

Let's update the terminology, Jim! Fellow competitor is not in use any more and playing partner doesn't mean anything now any more than it did pre-2019. Backache has it right: your search begins when you (i.e the player) or your caddie starts looking. If you have a partner as in a Four Ball game, it is also started when your partner or his caddie starts looking before you do.

No-one else starts the timing by looking for your ball, whether it is another player in your group or another group, a spectator, a spotter or a guy out walking his dog.

 

[rulie]

As described above it depends on what you mean by fellow players, i.e. fellow competitors or a playing partner.

PS I do the same as you as a buggy user simply because it helps to speed things up.

In the 2019 Rules what is a "fellow-competitor" or a "playing partner"?

 

[rulefan]

In the 2019 Rules what is a "fellow-competitor" or a "playing partner"?

Simply 'player'.

 

[jim8flog]

In the 2019 Rules what is a "fellow-competitor" or a "playing partner"?

Simply 'player'.

Thanks - sometimes it is the small changes that get missed

 

[rulefan]

Of course 'playing partner' was never in the rules before.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

A 'variation on the OP' question that most probably hasn't changed from the old rules - however.

A player starts looking for his ball in the rough and the clock starts. He needs to continue his search on the line of a badly misdirected tee shot from an adjacent hole - and after he has started looking a player sets up on that hole ready to tee off. Our player searching for his ball stops looking - and waits for players to tee off on adjacent hole. Does the clock stop whilst he waits? If it does I assume that it starts again immediately all players on adjacent hole have tee'd off.

 

[Colin L]

if you have to stop a search to be safe from another game playing through or coming down a parallel hole, you can stop timing. Stopping needs to be complete and obvious, not just a matter of looking up from your search for a moment to watch the flight of a ball and carrying on looking as soon as you see it's not coming your way. If you have to stand aside to be safe, then that's obviously a reason for stopping timing. See the Definition of Lost.

 

[dronfield]

I wonder how closely this new rule is being adherred to across the country in club comps?

We have certainly witnessed the odd group playing in front of us def taking longer than 3 mins.

As has often been the case, it is generally the person who has lost their ball who decides that they have looked "for long enough" - unlikely that a regular playing partner within the group is going to state that 3 mins is up.

Rich

 

[duncan mackie]

I wonder how closely this new rule is being adherred to across the country in club comps?

We have certainly witnessed the odd group playing in front of us def taking longer than 3 mins.

As has often been the case, it is generally the person who has lost their ball who decides that they have looked "for long enough" - unlikely that a regular playing partner within the group is going to state that 3 mins is up.

Rich

I've a cheap stopwatch attached to the trolley...3 min is proving challenging to estimate; even more so to estimate whether to set off across the fairway to help (basically by the time it's become obvious that the player is struggling to find their ball his time will probably be up as I get over to join in!

 

[rulie]

I've noticed that the new Rule (three minutes) has reduced the search times by two minutes - from seven minutes previously to 5 minutes currently.

 

[Colin L]

Observations from a recent tournament.

Two of the searches I timed were given up after 2 minutes. In two other searches, by the time two players had played their shots and gone over to help a search, the 3 minutes had elapsed. Not so helpful to the third player, but a timesaver.

And in another, I realised that at the same moment as I said "Sorry, your time is up" the player said, "Here it is". Or did he say it first, or a fraction later? A nightmare moment but resolved after a moment's thought. No prizes, but have a go at what you would have decided ("rulies" keep out!). It was his ball, by the way. And no, it didn't appear from his sleeve.

 

[rulie]

Observations from a recent tournament.

Two of the searches I timed were given up after 2 minutes. In two other searches, by the time two players had played their shots and gone over to help a search, the 3 minutes had elapsed. Not so helpful to the third player, but a timesaver.

And in another, I realised that at the same moment as I said "Sorry, your time is up" the player said, "Here it is". Or did he say it first, or a fraction later? A nightmare moment but resolved after a moment's thought. No prizes, but have a go at what you would have decided ("rulies" keep out!). It was his ball, by the way. And no, it didn't appear from his sleeve.

Regardless of the "prizes", I would likely have ruled just as you did - simultaneous announcements should favour the player.

 

[rulefan]

Regardless of the "prizes", I would likely have ruled just as you did - simultaneous announcements should favour the player.

Yes. The player would have seen the ball before opening his mouth.

 

[Colin L]

You guys were supposed to keep out.

It was as you say - simultaneous announcements should favour the player although I thought about that in a different way, and I also reasoned that the clock stopped when he saw the ball which would have been earlier than when he identified it and called out. The different approach was the thought that you cannot be so precise about starting your watch that you can be sure of the exact moment when the search finishes - which in effect is the same as concluding that you have to favour the player.