Don't you hate losing a ball after putting it in-play?

[CallawayGolf25]

I went out yesterday, had a fairly decent round going considering it's the beginning of the season (ground's still really wet and greens are like putting on carpet)... but I was on a par 5, hit an alright drive, had a couple trees to deal with but was in position to reach the green in 2, hit my second shot, bailing out right a little bit because there was trouble on the left... It was a well struck shot, and then I walk up and can't find the ball!

Maybe it was the wet ground, or the fact that the ground was pretty bad and littered with leaves and sticks, or some combination of the 3, but I should have been up by the green and was hoping for a Birdie chance... I eventually just took a drop.

What do you personally do when this happens out on the course? Do you take a penalty stroke or take a free drop? Either way, I hate these scenarios! lol

[sofingaw]

Terrible pain in the A. I take the drop. But man does it piss me off.

[David in FL]

I take a one stroke penalty and replay the shot from the same location that I just played from.  The penalty for a lost ball (not in a water hazard) is stroke and distance.

And yes, I HATE it when that happens!

[MacDutch]

I hate it. Played a couple of weeks ago somewhere and lost 6 balls that way. They even plugged deep in the fairway. Stopped counting and didn't take penalty stroke and distance.

When I'm playing for handicap or when there is something at stake, I go back and take the penalty.

[CallawayGolf25]

Originally Posted by David in FL

I take a one stroke penalty and replay the shot from the same location that I just played from.  The penalty for a lost ball (not in a water hazard) is stroke and distance.

And yes, I HATE it when that happens!

I had no idea you had to go back to the point where you played your shot... That sucks! ...especially when the ball should be in plain sight!

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

A lost ball is the same as hitting out of bounds. If you can't locate your ball, or aren't virtually certain it's in a water hazard, it's lost. If its lost, you must replay the shot from the spot you previously hit from, under penalty of 1 stroke.

[Archie Bunker]

Switch to range balls. Impossible to lose them.

[Lefty-Golfer]

Originally Posted by MyrtleBeachGolf

A lost ball is the same as hitting out of bounds. If you can't locate your ball, or aren't virtually certain it's in a water hazard, it's lost. If its lost, you must replay the shot from the spot you previously hit from, under penalty of 1 stroke.

if you played in the crap we are forced to play in the mid-atlantic you would reevaluate that comment. i understand you are, to the letter of the law, correct. that being said nobody to the best of my knowledge is posting rounds where this is an issue...typically we play lift clean in place when the balls are plugging so the rounds don't get posted. it is not a matter of following rules it is a matter of playing conditions.

[Wisguy]

Years ago in maybe my second year of playing I hit the first 250+ yard drive of my life on the very first day the course we were playing opened.  I hit it smack down the center of the fairway, a perfect drive.  And it was lost.  Reason:  the fairway was under the shadows of some tall old trees and there was a 100 yard long patch of snow covering more than half of the width of the fairway that the sun had never melted.  I'm sure the following day once the snow melted someone must have wondered why there was a new ball lying out in the middle of the fairway.  My friends with whom I was playing all agreed the ball would be 100% findable in the fairway but for the snow and told me to take a free drop on the non-snow-covered portion of the fairway.

A couple of times I've hit really well-struck tee shots that absolutely hit and stayed in the fairway, but were lost in mounds of leaves.  Leaves during the fall out in the rough under trees or divots in the fairways are naturally-occuring obstacles in the game of golf, same as a purpose-built water hazard.  But a damn 40' diameter pile of leaves in the middle of a fairway is simply poor maintenance and I should not have to be penalized because the groundskeepers did not keep the course clear.  Those couple of times I've dropped and not taken a penalty stroke.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by David in FL

I take a one stroke penalty and replay the shot from the same location that I just played from.  The penalty for a lost ball (not in a water hazard) is stroke and distance.

And yes, I HATE it when that happens!

Really?  Hypothetically: it's a Saturday morning, casual round, a busy and full course, you hit a nice 2nd shot on a par 5 that has no hazards, no OB, and you can clearly see whereabout it should have ended up just short of the green, so no reason whatsoever to hit a provisional, you get up there and can't find it, and by the time you are done looking the group behind you has reached their balls back in the fairway, and the group behind them is pulling up onto the tee ... do you really (I mean seriously, being 100% honest, not just "those are the rules and this is the internet, and you can't prove me wrong"), really, drive/walk back there and re-hit?

I gotta say, if the answer to that is yes, then if/when I ever play golf with you (I'd like to think our TST Socal events will expand ;)) and that happens ... it will be the first time I've ever come across somebody doing that when not playing in a tournament.

[Lefty-Golfer]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

Really?  Hypothetically: it's a Saturday morning, casual round, a busy and full course, you hit a nice 2nd shot on a par 5 that has no hazards, no OB, and you can clearly see whereabout it should have ended up just short of the green, so no reason whatsoever to hit a provisional, you get up there and can't find it, and by the time you are done looking the group behind you has reached their balls back in the fairway, and the group behind them is pulling up onto the tee ... do you really (I mean seriously, being 100% honest, not just "those are the rules and this is the internet, and you can't prove me wrong"), really, drive/walk back there and re-hit?

I gotta say, if the answer to that is yes, then if/when I ever play golf with you (I'd like to think our TST Socal events will expand ;)) and that happens ... it will be the first time I've ever come across somebody doing that when not playing in a tournament.

well said

[MyrtleBeachGolf]

if you played in the crap we are forced to play in the mid-atlantic you would reevaluate that comment. i understand you are, to the letter of the law, correct. that being said nobody to the best of my knowledge is posting rounds where this is an issue...typically we play lift clean in place when the balls are plugging so the rounds don't get posted. it is not a matter of following rules it is a matter of playing conditions.

I lived in and played golf in upstate NY for the first 20 years of my life. I know what spring golf in the Mid-Atlantic is like. My fault for not quoting CallawayGolf25 in my previous post. He said he didn't know you had to take a stroke and distance penalty for a list ball and I was merely explaining the rule.

[Dave2512]

Embedded ball? Happened to me a few times last summer after a night of heavy watering. I wouldn't have found it had I not been certain where I saw it land. The hole where it went through the turf was small.

[David in FL]

Really?  Hypothetically: it's a Saturday morning, casual round, a busy and full course, you hit a nice 2nd shot on a par 5 that has no hazards, no OB, and you can clearly see whereabout it should have ended up just short of the green, so no reason whatsoever to hit a provisional, you get up there and can't find it, and by the time you are done looking the group behind you has reached their balls back in the fairway, and the group behind them is pulling up onto the tee ... do you really (I mean seriously, being 100% honest, not just "those are the rules and this is the internet, and you can't prove me wrong"), really, drive/walk back there and re-hit? I gotta say, if the answer to that is yes, then if/when I ever play golf with you (I'd like to think our TST Socal events will expand ;)) and that happens ... it will be the first time I've ever come across somebody doing that when not playing in a tournament.

Happened in my game yesterday....to the guy I was playing with. Match play. He simply conceded the hole and we moved on. If he had chosen to continue the hole, he would have gone back. Unless I'm playing in a stroke play tournament, I play virtually 100% match play games with my happy little group.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Happened in my game yesterday....to the guy I was playing with. Match play. He simply conceded the hole and we moved on. If he had chosen to continue the hole, he would have gone back.

Unless I'm playing in a stroke play tournament, I play virtually 100% match play games with my happy little group.

OK, gotcha.  Your rounds are all some sort of competition, so that makes sense. :)

[mcmanus]

Hate it when it happens!! Especially with a pushy marshall nearby.

Worst i've had was a really wet course last year.. one hole there was 2-3 inches of wall on a good 100 yard stretch of fairway... managed to hit in somewhere in the middle.. ended up with wet socks/shoes and no ball!!

[David in FL]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

OK, gotcha.  Your rounds are all some sort of competition, so that makes sense. :)

Any time I play golf with a buddy, it's a competition......and unless it's a tournament, it's always some form of match play.  I don't think I've played a round in the last 20 years that didn't have something riding on it.  Maybe just a cold one after the round, but golf, like pool, was made for a bit of a wager to keep the juices flowing.

[MS256]

I don't keep track of a handicap and other than the little money game I play in on Saturdays every round I play is just for fun. When the round is over I know what I shot by how many birdies and bogeys I made, and I know if I had a lost ball without a provisional I don't actually have "a score" because there's not a chance in the world I'm going back to the tee on a public course for a round that means absolutely nothing. If somebody were to ask what I shot (if I lost a ball without a provisional) I would say I didn't keep score or didn't have a score.

We don't have the luxury of spotters with a pocketful of flags to run over and mark our ball when it lands like the pros do, or the time to go back to the tee and hit it again, or play on courses where there isn't a blade of grass out of place. The rest of us deal with overgrown Bermuda rough and 6 inches of leaves lining the fairways.