Ball in Tree

[Del]

Hi
Was out having a friendly knock about today. On one hole I hit my tee shot over some trees, trying to cut the corner. Now my mate said he saw it come down so off we went to look for it, but after only about 3-4 minutes we gave up, and I dropped another one down below the tree.

Just as I was going to play my ball the wind picked up and my first ball fell out of the tree and landed 4 feet to my right.

Which ball should I or could I have played??


Cheers

Del

 

[madandra]

Athough the ball appeared within the 5 minutes I would say that because you declared it lost and had dropped a provisional you should play the provisional and put the original ball and you clear concience in your bag.

 

[pokerjoke]

Obviously your mate didnt see it drop,as you were playing a friendly it doesnt matter which one you played as you were not playing to any rules.

 

[JT77]

you cant just drop a ball and play from under the tree, if it is a lost ball, you should have returned to the place you last played from, wether teeing ground or or not, if it were just a friendly knock, then the ball that fell out of the tree.

 

[bigslice]

i think as you declared it lost its too late. you play 3 of tee

 

[Fyldewhite]

1. You cannot declare a ball lost.
2. If you can't identify it within 5 mins it is deemed lost and you have to go back. If you decide to go back before that then as soon as you put another ball in play the original ball is lost.
3. The fact that you took an incorrect drop means the ball you dropped wasn't put in play under the rules and you could have then played the original (in fact you should have) if it came down within the 5 mins.
4. There may be a penalty for the incorrect drop - will have to look that bit up.

 

[Fyldewhite]

Slight correction.....
Once dropped the substituted ball is the ball in play but you can correct the mistake with no penalty providing you hadn't played it when the original fell out of the tree (and this was within 5 mins).

 

[SteveBonners]

If this was not a friendly knock about the rules are

a) in these circumstances a ball is defined as being lost when The player has made a stroke at a substituted ball. As no stroke was made the original ball had been found within 5 minutes and could be played.

b)If you had played the substituted ball which was dropped where the original ball was lost : The stroke and distance penalty would apply as well as an additional 2 stroke penalty for a breach of rule 27-1.(loss of hole in matchplay) This would also be deemed to be a serious breach and if this was not corrected (by going back and taking stroke and distance penalty) before teeing off on the next hole the player would be disqualified in medal play. In stableford this would be disqualification for that hole only.