If you hit a ball into the deep stuff are you obliged to spend 5 minutes looking for it, or can you declare it lost and just play your provisional ?
Declaring a lost ball.
- Thread starter CrapHacker
- Start date
freddielong
Tour Winner
You can just play your provisional ball and treat it as lost
JT77
Tour Winner
if you dont declare your reload a provisional then the ball is lost regardless of wether you find it or not. If you play a provisional and then you or somebody else finds your ball, you have to play the first ball and are not entitled to play the prov.
bobmac
Major Champion
If you play a provisional and then you or somebody else finds your ball, you have to play the first ball and are not entitled to play the prov.
Unless.........
rickg
Money List Winner
Ahhh....the old "declaring a ball lost thread".
There is no rule whatsoever in golf that allows you to "declare your ball lost".
"A ball is deemed 'lost' if:
a. It is not found or identified as his by the player within five minutes after the player's side or his or their caddies have begun to search for it; or
b. The player has made a stroke at a provisional ball from the place where the original ball is likely to be or from a point nearer the hole than that place (see Rule 27-2b); or
c. The player has put another ball into play under penalty of stroke and distance (see Rule 27-1a); or
d. The player has put another ball into play because it is known or virtually certain that the ball, which has not been found, has been moved by an outside agency (see Rule 18-1), is in an obstruction (see Rule 24-3), is in an abnormal ground condition (see Rule 25-1c) or is in a water hazard (see Rule 26-1); or
e. The player has made a stroke at a substituted ball.
Time spent in playing a wrong ball is not counted in the five-minute period allowed for search."
Of course, the correct thing to do if you definitely do not want to search for your original ball is to put another ball into play as quickly as possible, without declaring it as a provisional ball. Remember that on the teeing ground you have to wait until all the players in the group have played before you play your second ball from the tee. Once you have made a stroke at another ball, under penalty of stroke and distance, it does not matter if your original ball is then found, as it is no longer the ball in play.
There is no rule whatsoever in golf that allows you to "declare your ball lost".
"A ball is deemed 'lost' if:
a. It is not found or identified as his by the player within five minutes after the player's side or his or their caddies have begun to search for it; or
b. The player has made a stroke at a provisional ball from the place where the original ball is likely to be or from a point nearer the hole than that place (see Rule 27-2b); or
c. The player has put another ball into play under penalty of stroke and distance (see Rule 27-1a); or
d. The player has put another ball into play because it is known or virtually certain that the ball, which has not been found, has been moved by an outside agency (see Rule 18-1), is in an obstruction (see Rule 24-3), is in an abnormal ground condition (see Rule 25-1c) or is in a water hazard (see Rule 26-1); or
e. The player has made a stroke at a substituted ball.
Time spent in playing a wrong ball is not counted in the five-minute period allowed for search."
Of course, the correct thing to do if you definitely do not want to search for your original ball is to put another ball into play as quickly as possible, without declaring it as a provisional ball. Remember that on the teeing ground you have to wait until all the players in the group have played before you play your second ball from the tee. Once you have made a stroke at another ball, under penalty of stroke and distance, it does not matter if your original ball is then found, as it is no longer the ball in play.
jammydodger
Tour Winner
If you play a provisional and then you or somebody else finds your ball, you have to play the first ball and are not entitled to play the prov.
Unless.........
It's OOB
chrisd
Major Champion
As usual with the rules there are anomalies- if you declare and play a provisional and that provisional doesn't pass the point where your original ball(probably)finished you are entitled to keep playing the provisional until you are past the original ball so galloping up to your (declared)provisional ball so as to stop anyone finding the original ball and playing it, may still allow your opponent/s the oppotunity to find it and declare your original ball as "the ball in play" by stating that you were still playing a "provisional" ball and not the "ball in play"
MMMMM it's all so simple isn't it??
MMMMM it's all so simple isn't it??
