Playing the wrong Ball.

[kid2]

As per the title gents...
This might be a mini rant but bare with me...
Why in gods name is it so hard for players to not check their ball before they play it..
I had a situation today where there was fairways running parallel to each other and after addressing my ball and picking my distant target i looked up to see a player playing the adjacent hole standing in behind a group of tree's waiting for us to hit as his ball had found its way onto ours..

So i let and my ball landed not more than 10 yards from him (i gave the shout of fore) which he acknowledged with a wave to me..
My partners hit off and we proceeded to our second shots.As i pass the culprit in question he saluted me and thanked me for the shout of Fore. No problem i said..
Then que the search for my ball...Now i knew i wasnt in trouble as i had a good idea where it dropped but to no avail could i find it.What i did find was a cheap Aldi ball..

His nibbs had played my Wilson staff...So off after the guilty party i went and had the best part of 400 yards to walk to see if i was right.
Low and behold their is my Wilson nestled neatly about 20 feet from, his green in the rough....

After a bit of banter and a lot of apologies from him i got my ball back but here is what really ticked me off....
"This isnt the 1st time iv done this he said"
"It happened a few weeks back also"

"Lesson obviously not learned says I" to myself.
What does he do then only go back and play the ball he was supposed to originally...(Im pretty sure that he should have been out of the hole after playing my ball)

Anyway that knocked me off my momentum for a bit and it was one of only 2 holes i scratched...

Rant over.

 

[RGDave]

It's weird. I haven't played the wrong ball in years, but did so in a pairs game t'other day. The only excuse I can offer was it was a Titleist 4 in the rough. I just saw the number and played it.
From the middle of a fairway, unforgivable. Space cadet stuff really.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

From the middle of a fairway, unforgivable. Space cadet stuff really.

Maybe he wasn't use to playing off the short grass and he had a bit of a mental shutdown!

 

[HawkeyeMS]

There's no excuse for playing the wrong ball, the rules even allow you to lift the ball to identify it if necessary as long as you make your intentions clear to your playing partner and give them the opportunity to witness you doing so.

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who don't know what ball they are playing.

A couple of years ago I was standing over my ball on the 3rd hole at my old course when some fella came running from the 1st tee which runs parallel claiming I was playing his ball. I explained it was drfinately mine but he wouldn't have it so I asked what ball he was playing. To my absolute astonishment his answer was "I don't know"

 

[NWJocko]

Best I've seen on this subject wasn't even playing the wrong ball.

Our 9th and 1st are sort of parallel. My mate sliced his drive way, way across onto the first fairway. As he's walking across the fairway (in open ground) one of the group playing up the first walk up to his ball, conclude it isn't theirs, picks it up and puts it in his pocket!!

My mate had a few words with the boy.

 

[MashieNiblick]

What does he do then only go back and play the ball he was supposed to originally...(Im pretty sure that he should have been out of the hole after playing my ball)

Depends.

Match play yes, it is loss of hole (or he's out of it if it's 4BBB)

If it was a stroke play comp he did the right thing to go back and play it.

Rule 15-3
b. Stroke Play
If a competitor makes a stroke or strokes at a wrong ball, he incurs a penalty of two strokes.
The competitor must correct his mistake by playing the correct ball or by proceeding under the Rules. If he fails to correct his mistake before making a stroke on the next teeing ground or, in the case of the last hole of the round, fails to declare his intention to correct his mistake before leaving the putting green, he is disqualified.

If it was stableford, no DQ but he was entitled to play on until he couldn't score.

 

[USER1999]

I love this. Two people I played with today only marked their ball on one side.? Wtf, why? It always ends up Mark side down. Stupidity has no lmits. So it appears.

I played a while ago with a mate called Kevin. Now he marks his balls with kev, written in inch high letters.
Now we are one down with one to play. Adam scuffs his off the tee, and then hits his second up towards kevs. I am out of the hole, so it all hangs on kev.
He walks up, hammers it to about 150 yards out. Sorted thinks I. But no. He has played the wrong ball. Adamant he hasn't, but when we get uthere, yep. He has.

 

[Smiffy]

Played with a guy at St Mellion once. Declared on the tee that I was playing a Titleist 1, he said nothing, other than "ok".
Both hit our drives down the middle (no, really I did) and approached our balls.
I hit my second shot, he went to play his and then declared I had played the wrong ball.
He was also playing a Titleist 1, but his had a St Mellion logo on it, which had not been noticeable on the ball I played as it was facing down.
Prat