searching ball and walk back

[marisa]

With the 3 other players I was searching my ball. After 1 minute I decided to walk back to the tee to play a provisional ball. Within the 3 minutes my first ball has been found. Should I continue to play the first ball or the provisional ball becomes in game under a one-stroke penalty?

 

[Backache]

Provided you declared the second ball provisional. The first ball is the ball in play if found within three minutes.

 

[Neilds]

If you have already walked forward from the tee, not sure exact distance, you cannot hit a provisional-the ball automatically becomes the one in play, irrespective of wether the first is found or not

 

[SammmeBee]

If you have already walked forward from the tee, not sure exact distance, you cannot hit a provisional-the ball automatically becomes the one in play, irrespective of wether the first is found or not

Old school......

 

[jim8flog]

If you have already walked forward from the tee, not sure exact distance, you cannot hit a provisional-the ball automatically becomes the one in play, irrespective of wether the first is found or not

That changed with the 2019 rules changes.

 

[Swango1980]

Before the 2019 rule changes, you would not be able to go back and play a provisional once you had gone forward to start searching for the original. So, if you did go back and hit another off the tee, that would automatically have become the ball in play, regardless if your first was then found within the time frame (then 5 minutes). However, as jim8flog said, this changed in 2019, your original ball is the one in play as it was found within 3 minutes. To be honest, it's rule changes like this that will catch loads of people out. Only the major changes were ever really highlighted (drop from knee height, putt with flag in, etc), so it's easy to see how golfers will miss this initially.

 

[chrisd]

Before the 2019 rule changes, you would not be able to go back and play a provisional once you had gone forward to start searching for the original. So, if you did go back and hit another off the tee, that would automatically have become the ball in play, regardless if your first was then found within the time frame (then 5 minutes). However, as jim8flog said, this changed in 2019, your original ball is the one in play as it was found within 3 minutes. To be honest, it's rule changes like this that will catch loads of people out. Only the major changes were ever really highlighted (drop from knee height, putt with flag in, etc), so it's easy to see how golfers will miss this initially.

That's not quite how it was.

Before the 2019 rules update you could go back and play a provisional under certain circumstances even if you'd left the tee. The circumstances may have been, if your bag was further forward and you had to walk forward to get another ball to hit off the tee or if you'd walked about 50 yards, say over a mound, and saw that you should have played a provisional because you couldn't see the trouble because of the mound but you could only return if the distance wasn't more than about 50 yards was my understanding

 

[Foxholer]

With the 3 other players I was searching my ball. After 1 minute I decided to walk back to the tee to play a provisional ball. Within the 3 minutes my first ball has been found. Should I continue to play the first ball or the provisional ball becomes in game under a one-stroke penalty?

Bear in mind that you also have to identify the 'found' ball as yours. So depending on the particular circumstances (like how far away the 'original ball' is), you can/could (continue to) play the provisional or go and identify the ball. Time has moved on, probably past the 3 min boundary, if it turns out to NOT be you 1st ball though. In that case your provisional would become the ball in play (if it was put into play) or not a Provisional (if it hadn't).

 

[Swango1980]

That's not quite how it was.

Before the 2019 rules update you could go back and play a provisional under certain circumstances even if you'd left the tee. The circumstances may have been, if your bag was further forward and you had to walk forward to get another ball to hit off the tee or if you'd walked about 50 yards, say over a mound, and saw that you should have played a provisional because you couldn't see the trouble because of the mound but you could only return if the distance wasn't more than about 50 yards was my understanding

Agreed, although I was replying to his specific scenario, in which it was stated that they had already started searching for the original ball

 

[jim8flog]

Bear in mind that you also have to identify the 'found' ball as yours. ).

Not right under the rules

7.2 How to Identify Ball

A player’s ball at rest may be identified in any one of these ways:


New Rules of Golf for 2019
• By the player or anyone else seeing a ball come to rest in circumstances where it is known to be the player’s ball.

• By seeing the player’s identifying mark on the ball (see Rule 6.3a).

• By finding a ball with the same brand, model, number and condition as the player’s ball in an area where the player’s ball is expected to be (but this does not apply if an identical ball is in the same area and there is no way to know which one is the player’s ball).