Playing the wrong ball?

[English golfer in Spain]

Could someone please help me with a problem that happened yesterday in our Monthly Medal? It didn’t happen to me, but with a friend.

Player A is playing hole 17 and drives his ball into a waste area. Which is like a sandy gritty area that we can play out of if you can find your ball because they have a load of “Pampas Grass in them sometimes the ball gets lost. Player A knows that he might not find his ball so plays a provisional ball which he plays into the middle of the fairway.

He walks into waste area and plays a ball, which isn’t his ball but another players ball coming down hole 16. His provisional ball is picked up by one of his playing partners. When he gets up to the green he finds out that he has played the wrong ball.

My question is when he Player A comes back to drop a ball on the fairway does the player incur another 2 shot penalty because he has played the wrong ball, thus is he playing his 6th shot?

 

[duncan mackie]

Could someone please help me with a problem that happened yesterday in our Monthly Medal? It didn’t happen to me, but with a friend.

Player A is playing hole 17 and drives his ball into a waste area. Which is like a sandy gritty area that we can play out of if you can find your ball because they have a load of “Pampas Grass in them sometimes the ball gets lost. Player A knows that he might not find his ball so plays a provisional ball which he plays into the middle of the fairway.

He walks into waste area and plays a ball, which isn’t his ball but another players ball coming down hole 16. His provisional ball is picked up by one of his playing partners. When he gets up to the green he finds out that he has played the wrong ball.

My question is when he Player A comes back to drop a ball on the fairway does the player incur another 2 shot penalty because he has played the wrong ball, thus is he playing his 6th shot?

Assuming his playing partner isn't a partner, but a fellow competitor, and that he didn't ask him to pick it up, he must replace his provisional ball and continue playing 6.
If the person picking up his ball was his partner (in the competition) or he requested the person to pick it up, he is playing 7 (it's 1 shot for moving a ball when not authorised/permitted by the rules as long as you replace it).

 

[Barrie J]

Could someone please help me with a problem that happened yesterday in our Monthly Medal? It didn’t happen to me, but with a friend.

Player A is playing hole 17 and drives his ball into a waste area. Which is like a sandy gritty area that we can play out of if you can find your ball because they have a load of “Pampas Grass in them sometimes the ball gets lost. Player A knows that he might not find his ball so plays a provisional ball which he plays into the middle of the fairway.

He walks into waste area and plays a ball, which isn’t his ball but another players ball coming down hole 16. His provisional ball is picked up by one of his playing partners. When he gets up to the green he finds out that he has played the wrong ball.

My question is when he Player A comes back to drop a ball on the fairway does the player incur another 2 shot penalty because he has played the wrong ball, thus is he playing his 6th shot?

Or he could have gone back and searched for his original ball (for 3 minutes) and if he was lucky enough to find it, he'd be playing 4 to the green. If he doesn't find it, Duncan's analysis applies and Duncan's point about the player's partner picking up the ball is astute.

 

[DickInShorts]

Or he could have gone back and searched for his original ball (for 3 minutes) and if he was lucky enough to find it, he'd be playing 4 to the green. If he doesn't find it, Duncan's analysis applies and Duncan's point about the player's partner picking up the ball is astute.

Presumably he’d started a search for his ball when he found the wrong ball he played from the waste area - I’m sure it would have taken 3 minutes to the get to the green to discover it wasn’t his ball and walk back to where his original ball might be found?

 

[rulie]

Presumably he’d started a search for his ball when he found the wrong ball he played from the waste area - I’m sure it would have taken 3 minutes to the get to the green to discover it wasn’t his ball and walk back to where his original ball might be found?

Time spent playing a wrong ball does not count as part of the search. The time of search stopped when the player found the wrong ball and stopped searching. (Interpretation 18.2a(1)/1)