Where we right?

[Master-putter]

Today on our 1st,a par 3 you have to hit over a massive dip, bushes surrounding the dip. I thinned my first tee shot into the bushes. I played my provisional into the dip for safety. I walked up to where i thought my ball went in the bushes, and looked about for 5 mins, and couldn't find it. I said to my playing partners that as i couldn't find my first, i would play on with my provisional. As i walked up to my provisional, i found my first in a rabbit hole! It had bounced out of the bushes at 90* and about 30 yards into the dip. We had a little discussion, and come to the conclusion that i should play my first, so i did. Where we right in doing this????

 

[Imurg]

If it was found within 5 minutes the Yes
If not then the provisional is in play as the first is lost.

 

[Colin L]

I walked up to where i thought my ball went in the bushes, and looked about for 5 mins, and couldn't find it ....

As imurg says, if you have not found your ball within 5 minutes, it is lost. From what you say, the 5 minutes were up before you found your original ball so unfortunately you didn't do the right thing by playing it. After the 5 minutes, your provisional ball becomes the ball in play and your original ball, if found, is just like any other abandoned ball you might find lying around. That means when you played it, you played a wrong ball (see the Definition of wrong ball). The penalty for that is loss of hole if you are playing matchplay and slightly more complicated in stroke play where there is a 2 stroke penalty but you must correct your mistake by going back to play the correct ball (the provisional ball in this case) before you tee off at the next hole. If you don't correct the mistake, you don't have a valid score for the hole and are disqualified. See Rule 15-3.

 

[Master-putter]

Ok cheers for the reply guys, i NR'd anyway so effectively i didn't affect the scores, i'll know if it happens again though