Rules question - 'lost ball'

[TerryA]

I was playing in a competition at another club and my partner hit a ball off the tee left into a gorse bush - they had ball spotters and the spotter said it definitely went into the bush. We could not actually find is as the bush was so dense. It was not GUR or a hazard. As we could not actually see it I thought it should be stroke & distance and 3 off the tee. The pair we were playing with insisted that as the spotter was certain it was in the bush then my partner could go back behind the bush in line with the flag, no nearer the flag and take a drop under penalty. I am still convinced that as we could not actually see the ball (it was a very dense bush!) it was 'lost' and only stroke & distance applied.

 

[Heidi]

in order to go back on the line - do you not need to draw an imaginary line from the flag and through the ball...if you dont know where the ball is - then surely you cant go back in line...hmmmm

most of us dont have the luxury of spotters...

 

[Ethan]

Lost ball. It was not a hazard, hence ball needed to be ID'd or known to be OB.

 

[Colin L]

Hi Medal Winner. You won't win medals fairly by listening to that pair. You were quite correct. Your ball was lost and you should indeed have gone back to the tee. The option of dropping on the line between ball and hole is available for an unplayable lie, provided you have found and identified your ball, or for a water hazard or abnormal ground condition if your ball isn't found and you know or are virtually certain that it went in there.

What you did then, was to play from a wrong place. (See Rule 20-7.) In match play you lose the hole. In stroke play it is a 2 stroke penalty and you play out with that ball unless, as in this case, you realise that this was probably a serious breach of the rule (you gave yourself an unfair advantage by the distance you gained between the tee and where you wrongly played from). If you realised before teeing off at the next hole, you could have put it right by going back to the tee, playing a second ball from the correct place (your 3rd shot) with a 2 stroke penalty. You have to report what happened to the Committee for a decision on whether it was a serious breach. Since you did not do that, you should have been disqualified.

 

[walshawwhippet]

Lost ball. It was not a hazard, hence ball needed to be ID'd or known to be OB.

Agree.. Lee Westwood at the US Open. Everyone new it was up that pesky tree, but no-one could see it.
Hense stroke & distance & 3 off the tee:angry:

 

[Colin L]

Lost ball. It was not a hazard, hence ball needed to be ID'd or known to be OB.

I didn't understand or known to be OB. If it was known to be OB, it would make no difference - it's back to the tee.

 

[MashieNiblick]

The pair we were playing with insisted that as the spotter was certain it was in the bush then my partner could go back behind the bush in line with the flag, no nearer the flag and take a drop under penalty.

Where do people get these ideas from and why are they always so insistent they are right.

 

[Imurg]

It came up in another thread - people get told things like this and the next time it happens they proceed incorrectly.
Self-perpetuating.
And if it's a few years since it happened they may do it a completely different way again.........

 

[Ethan]

I didn't understand or known to be OB. If it was known to be OB, it would make no difference - it's back to the tee.

What I meant was that if the ball was known to be OB, i.e. someone has seen it flying over a boundary fence onto the road, then you do not have to ID it to proceed.

 

[Colin L]

Thanks, Ethan.

 

[chrisd]

Where do people get these ideas from and why are they always so insistent they are right.

In the last few weeks our Pro, in a 4BBB match I played against him, didn't know how to proceed with a ball moving on the green that he didn't cause to move, and, cowed up a bogie competition by giving instructions completely against the rules of golf as to proceedure.