My Ball Gone! Penalty?

What penalty should I take in a situation like this? I hit a tee shot, see with my own eyes where the ball goes but I don't see it bounces. (it's not on fairway of course!). For some reason, I look around and cannot find it! I didn't hit a provisional and I cannot go back to the tee box and rehit. (well I guess I shouldn't do that in a crowded public course).

I normally drop a ball where I think my ball first hits the ground and take one stroke penalty. I want to make my score legit but I'm not sure about the best practice. I wish I could hit every fairway and don't have a problem finding my ball.

Sorry if this has been asked before!

It isn't legit.

You have to go back to where you hit the ball and play again.

Yes by the rules your supposed to hit a provisional. But if your just playing a round with some buddies or yourself it wont hurt to just drop like you are.

But like James said its not the right way to do it.

Sorry about being blunt in my first post

Unless your playing in a tournament just drop a ball on the fairway and take your 4th shot. A lot of people think it'd be their 3rd but they forget their 3rd would have been taken on the teebox.

If your playing in a tournament and your not 100% sure where your ball is then your better off hitting a provisional.
Nothing is worse than that long walk back to the teebox.

Yup! As James said, it's your 4th shot. That is as close to making it "legit" without having to slow down groups behind you.

carp there goes my handi!

Thanks for all answers! From my understanding, it's like we assume that I hit the 3rd shot from the tee to where I drop the ball. That's why it's 4th shot.

I guess I had better either hit a fairway or use a pink ball .

In a case like this(which rarely happens), I do not give any penalty(unless playing really serious), because I didnt do anything wrong and it does not reflect my swing. This usually happens on courses where the rough is outrageous after rainy days and the ball just is completely covered. Just my opinion, as taking a penalty or not does not change my playing ability, it just feels really crappy having to replace my ball. Wouldnt it be nice to have people point out where our balls are at like the pros.lol

Just to be clear:

1. if i LOST the ball - and drop where i think it went - it's 1) original shot 2) penalty 3) supposed rehit from tee box.. thus hitting 4) after drop.

2. if my ball lands out of BOUNDS.. i pick up and drop. .that's 1) original shot 2) penalty for drop hitting 3) after drop

?

I think the OP is saying. he sees the ball land. bounce. etc, so not expecting it to be lost.
i've played on some courses where the rough is so brutal, a few feet off the fairway and it's gonna be hell trying to find your ball..

Get into the habit of hitting a provisional, even when you're in a fun round with friends. If your drive goes off course, it costs very little time to tee up another and hit.

Let everyone else in your group hit, then step back in and hit your provisional as everyone is heading for their carts. They will realize you are hitting again - it's not a surprise to most golfers.

If you want to play by the rules, in either case you must go back and re-tee. If you want to fudge it, in either case, take your drop and play your 4th shot from there. If you're in a tournament, you must re-tee or I suspect you'd be disqualified (dropping would probably be considered a major violation). If you're playing for fun, even if it's a handicap round, you can probably get away with the drop. In that case, you would have to mark on your scorecard that you did not complete the hole (I think you put an X after the score). If you play out the hole from that point, and record your score, that's probably a legitimate way to estimate your score for an incomplete hole. As long as you don't do this on more than 5 holes, you may (must, even) still record your score.

That's the real lesson. If I hit in serious trouble, I'll hit provisionals until I'm 100% sure I can find one of them. If I'm just a bit worried it'll be hard to find the shot, but it's not in real risk of being OB, I'll usually just play a second shot as a provisional, doubling my odds of finding one or the other. Note that if you're playing in a competitive situation, you must inform your partners or your marker that you are playing a provisional, using that specific word. Even if it's obvious what you're doing, unless you say the magic word, you're considered to be putting a new ball in play under stroke and distance. The only exception I'm aware of is if you're in a situation where it's unreasonable to notify someone else --- e.g., if you're going to substantially delay play just to notify someone else. In that case, you can play the provisional and notify the others as soon as possible. This wouldn't come up on the tee, though, only on a later shot when you found yourself miles away from everyone else.

I have a question, what about if you hit a dead straight drive, you see it land in the middle of the fairway, but can't find it when you get up there/ what then?
this happened to me in chicago a few weeks ago

You curse your bad luck and either fudge the rules as described above, or go back and re-tee hitting 3. The rules don't make any exception for this, so you just have to consider it a rub of the green.

Ya i took a penalty and dropped one about where it bounced
I wasnt about to go back to the tee, playing with friends lol.
It was frustrating, cause it happened twice,
one i think plugged and just couldnt find it i dunno
oh wel

I do have one rule I use. I often play alone, and one of the courses I play has the most disgusting, thickest rough you've ever seen, and the softest ground you could ever imagine. Even the greens are like shag carpet, and they feel like wet sponges under foot. It's easy to lose a ball in that rough. When I'm playing alone, it's hard for me to spot my own ball, so if I see it land, and when I drive up, can't find it, I just drop one where I saw it land, and continue on with no penalty. The course is in such bad shape, some people consider all greens hit to be automatic 2 putts!

The amazing thing about this grass, I've lost balls when 4 guys all saw it land in the same spot. We go and look, but the grass is like a damn jungle, I swear you can hear the tiki drums. We've looked and looked, and looked, and if we're really lucky, someone might step on it. I've lost as many as 4 balls in that rough in a single round. Needless to say, I don't tend to count scores there toward my handicap.

I always hit a provisional after everyone else has tee'd off if playing in a comp or handicap supplemental.
A said this does not take much extra time and if you find your ball you just pick up the provisional

If I am just having a round for fun I drop one where the ball went and play my 4th from the drop.

You're going to get in trouble with the rules sticklers!

I played golf at a resort in Costa Rica once, and that kept happening, but in the fairway. My father would tee off, we would see the ball come to rest, and it would be gone when we got there. One time an iguana actually made off with my ball, but the other times it was just no where to be found. Plus, if you hit it into the trees you were in monkey territory.....