LIG
Q-School Graduate
Seems there was a bit of a discussion yesterday about whether a player should be DQ'd or not and yours truly was called up AFTER all the discussions. We are just a small society/roll-up but we always play strokeplay rounds following R@A and CONGU rules and handicapping.
A player drives wildy into the trees on the right and a solid thunk is heard. Player declares he's playing a provisional but on this occasion, with the drive being played almost directly into the morning sun, no one sees the flight of the ball. Based on the strike/feel the player thinks it was "a little straighter but still towards a line of trees on the right" but one FC "suggests" it was a "duck hook" left!!!
Near the line of trees in question a ball is found and identified as his by the player - but at the time he was not certain if it was the original or the provisional. This ball is played forward and, as the player moves off, his "other" ball is handed to him by someone playing a parallel fairway. At this point the player realises that the ball he's played was his provisonal.
The remainder of the hole is played out and when confirming scores between the green and the next tee, The player states the correct score including the 3 off the tee.
The later discussions centered around the player playing the "found" ball without knowing if it was his original or his provisional - some suggested that since he couldn't be certain which ball it was it was a "lost ball" and he should have gone back to the tee to play another i.e. 5 off the tee.
My thoughts were that, since he'd found a ball that was his, and he could confirm that it wasn't a ball of his from a former round, his score (as returned) was correct. I went on to add that even if he hadn't found the other/first ball and he had continued to be ignorant of its status as either original or provisional, he would have had to treat it as his provisional to avoid the possiblity of returning a score lower than scored.
The reason for the discussions was to determine whether or not the player "won" the wooden spoon of shame!
It's a big deal so the current "holder" won't let this go. I couldn't quote chapter and verse to back up my advice but was fairly sure it's correct - don't know why!!:mmm:
Any help gratefully received.
A player drives wildy into the trees on the right and a solid thunk is heard. Player declares he's playing a provisional but on this occasion, with the drive being played almost directly into the morning sun, no one sees the flight of the ball. Based on the strike/feel the player thinks it was "a little straighter but still towards a line of trees on the right" but one FC "suggests" it was a "duck hook" left!!!

Near the line of trees in question a ball is found and identified as his by the player - but at the time he was not certain if it was the original or the provisional. This ball is played forward and, as the player moves off, his "other" ball is handed to him by someone playing a parallel fairway. At this point the player realises that the ball he's played was his provisonal.
The remainder of the hole is played out and when confirming scores between the green and the next tee, The player states the correct score including the 3 off the tee.
The later discussions centered around the player playing the "found" ball without knowing if it was his original or his provisional - some suggested that since he couldn't be certain which ball it was it was a "lost ball" and he should have gone back to the tee to play another i.e. 5 off the tee.
My thoughts were that, since he'd found a ball that was his, and he could confirm that it wasn't a ball of his from a former round, his score (as returned) was correct. I went on to add that even if he hadn't found the other/first ball and he had continued to be ignorant of its status as either original or provisional, he would have had to treat it as his provisional to avoid the possiblity of returning a score lower than scored.
The reason for the discussions was to determine whether or not the player "won" the wooden spoon of shame!

Any help gratefully received.