Region3
Ryder Cup Winner
We had a situation occur this week that went like this...
Player hit approach to green into a water hazard (yellow stakes) which is a pond with large trees surrounding it, only there's no water in it at the moment.
The ball hit a couple of the trees and probably dropped in the hazard but we didn't see it. Because we weren't 'virtually certain', the player played a provisional ball.
All good so far.
We walked around in the hazard for the ball and within 20 seconds we found it, so the provisional is now dead.
The ball wasn't playable and dropping back on a line gave no shot so the player went back to the previous spot and hit his approach again.
A chip shot later and he goes to mark his ball on the green, and notices that even though it's the same make of ball with the same company logo on it, that it isn't actually his ball as the markings were different.
We go back to the hazard and after a couple of minutes find his original ball.
Had he effectively played a wrong ball by finding the wrong ball, even though his original was in the same hazard?
Or was everything ok because his ball did turn out to be in the hazard that he took a penalty stroke from?
We didn't know whether he should carry on with the ball that was on the green (and if so, whether or not to add any penalty shots) or if he had to go back to the spot he'd already played 2 shots from and hit another to finish the hole with.
Player hit approach to green into a water hazard (yellow stakes) which is a pond with large trees surrounding it, only there's no water in it at the moment.
The ball hit a couple of the trees and probably dropped in the hazard but we didn't see it. Because we weren't 'virtually certain', the player played a provisional ball.
All good so far.
We walked around in the hazard for the ball and within 20 seconds we found it, so the provisional is now dead.
The ball wasn't playable and dropping back on a line gave no shot so the player went back to the previous spot and hit his approach again.
A chip shot later and he goes to mark his ball on the green, and notices that even though it's the same make of ball with the same company logo on it, that it isn't actually his ball as the markings were different.
We go back to the hazard and after a couple of minutes find his original ball.
Had he effectively played a wrong ball by finding the wrong ball, even though his original was in the same hazard?
Or was everything ok because his ball did turn out to be in the hazard that he took a penalty stroke from?
We didn't know whether he should carry on with the ball that was on the green (and if so, whether or not to add any penalty shots) or if he had to go back to the spot he'd already played 2 shots from and hit another to finish the hole with.