Was the ball lost

[upsidedown]

Today PP hit his drive left towards a copse of trees and we spent 3 mins looking for it to no avail. Another played then hit his shot but duffed it 40 yards further up the hole in the rough and when he got to it ,it was next to my PP ball. I'm sure I read somewhere that it would be ok to.play it as we'd been searching in totally the wrong place ?

 

[backwoodsman]

Pretty certain it was lost. You looked for it for three minutes, in the area you thought it was, and didn’t find it. Ergo it was lost. The fact its wasn't where you thought it was is not relevant.

 

[Steven Rules]

I'm sure I read somewhere

Hard to tell if this is a serious question or just taking the mickey.

The authoritative reading material is the Rules of Golf.....Definitions....Lost.

The ball was not found within three minutes of the player commencing the search. It is lost.

I think it is self-evident that, by definition (lower case d), if the player was searching in the 'right' spot the player wouldn't have lost it.

 

[salfordlad]

It is a virtual certainty that, if you haven't found your ball, you are searching in the wrong place!

 

[NearHull]

It is a virtual certainty that, if you haven't found your ball, you are searching in the wrong place!

My wife would say … “that’s just man looking, where did you last have it?”.


Me. “On the tee?”

 

[DickInShorts]

Wrong place would have helped me a few years ago:
Played into the sun off the tee - PP said he thought it had gone right - looked to no avail - waved next group through as I walked back to the tee. When I got to my ball one of tge group we’d let through found my original in the LEFT rough