Identifying Your Ball

[Pompey10]

Can you do one on identifying your ball please. Today played with guy that never puts a marking on ball we found 2 balls on first cut exactly same, how did he know which was his

[iacas]

You can identify your ball by the number, make, model, brand, etc. Or even saying "my ball is the one to the right of that other white dot out there" and if that white dot turns out to be the same kind of ball, and yours is to the right of it, that's good enough (i.e. you saw it land and the ball you were playing was right there).

Players are encouraged to put a unique mark on their ball, but they aren't required to. If you can identify your ball, that's good enough.

[Carl3]

19 hours ago, Pompey10 said:

Can you do one on identifying your ball please. Today played with guy that never puts a marking on ball we found 2 balls on first cut exactly same, how did he know which was his

Thanks for the topic. I like the golfers who appear to be nearly blind by picking up their ball, raising it high, and inspecting it before gingerly placing it back almost where it was whether it was in the rough or even first cut. Reminds me of the adage: "He who has the fastest cart has the best lie".

[Double Mocha Man]

20 hours ago, Pompey10 said:

Today played with guy that never puts a marking on ball we found 2 balls on first cut exactly same, how did he know which was his?

Obviously, his was the ball closest to the hole.  😄

[RickK]

Had to call lost ball penalty on 2 guys in one of my golf leagues.  They both hit Titleist ProV1 left over a hill.  Got over there, found 2 balls, neither one knew what number he was playing.  Neither one had a mark on his ball.  Sent both back to the tee to rehit.  Noticed when I saw them again, they had marks on their ball.  

[pganapathy]

On 2/16/2022 at 6:48 PM, Pompey10 said:

Can you do one on identifying your ball please. Today played with guy that never puts a marking on ball we found 2 balls on first cut exactly same, how did he know which was his

Determined by the better lie 😊

Though I suppose he could have identified it because his was the much older or newer ball

Edited February 23, 2022 by pganapathy

[Rulesman]

53 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

Determined by the better lie 😊

Though I suppose he could have identified it because his was the much older or newer ball

It's as much about identifying it in isolation rather than distinguishing between two balls.

[mcanadiens]

I played golf Sunday with a man named Duck. He did have a duck on each of his balls. 

[imsys0042]

45 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

I played golf Sunday with a man named Duck. He did have a duck on each of his balls. 

Good thing his name wasn't Dick.

[TourSpoon]

1 hour ago, imsys0042 said:

Good thing his name wasn't Dick.

[pganapathy]

On 2/23/2022 at 10:22 AM, Rulesman said:

It's as much about identifying it in isolation rather than distinguishing between two balls.

I suppose that depends on what the others are playing.  If his is the only Srixon Soft Feel number 7 for example and he hit it onto the fairway, he can identify it.  When more than one person is playing the same ball it is more problematic and if you find a lost ball along with his, if they are the same that is also problematic. 🤦‍♀️

[KMP]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:53 AM, mcanadiens said:

I played golf Sunday with a man named Duck. He did have a duck on each of his balls. 

On EACH of his balls?  Hmmm ...I guess in a match that would be good to inform your fellow competitor(s) of the markings on one's balls.

[cdh79]

I wonder how the following situation that I ran into a while ago is being handled.. two players (in my situation on opposing fairways) play their balls next to each other. The first player (from my flight) who came to the balls wasn't able to definitively identify his ball (he wasn't sure of the number as he just had to replace his ball after an incident with a water-hazard, and the brand and type of both balls were the same), so he waited until the player from the flight from the other fairway came along. That player fortunately was able to identify his own ball based on the number, so the player on my flight could be certain that the remaining ball was his and played it (we all saw the ball land at that spot, so there was no doubt that one of those would be his ball). The player in the other flight immediately said "number 3 is mine" without even telling him the possible options.

Would the 3-minute "searching" rule come into play here and if it took longer than that for the other guy to identify his ball, it would be deemed as a "lost ball", or is there anything else that would be applicable here?

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by cdh79
added some info

[iacas]

His “search” ended when he found the two balls, though.

[cdh79]

57 minutes ago, iacas said:

His “search” ended when he found the two balls, though.

Even when he could not clearly identify his own ball?
..or was it sufficient that he was able to identify the area where the ball was expected to be (rule 7.2) and as long as the other player is able to clearly identify his own ball, the first player would be within the rules?
Once the second player had identified his own ball, player 1's ball would be the only possible option in that landing area, so that sounds valid.. 

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, cdh79 said:

Even when he could not clearly identify his own ball?

Well, let's take a look at the Interpretations.

18.2a(1)/3 – Ball May Become Lost if It is Not Promptly Identified

When a player has the opportunity to identify a ball as his or hers within the three-minute search time but fails to do so, the ball is lost when the search time expires.

For example, a player begins to search for his or her ball and after two minutes finds a ball that the player believes to be another player’s ball and resumes search for his or her ball.

The three-minute search time elapses and it is then discovered that the ball the player found and believed to be another player’s ball was in fact the player’s ball. In this case, the player’s ball is lost because he or she continued the search, failing to identify the found ball promptly.

If you look at 18.2a(1)/1, though, you can see that the search time is suspended in certain cases.

Since you didn't provide any approximations for the time (you only said he "waited"), and since the question isn't really a "search" question but is almost entirely an "identifying" question (the player knew his ball was one of the two the whole time, and never really had to search for it), it comes down IMO to a matter of timing. It seems unlikely that if the two balls were there when he walked up, that the other player was more than three minutes away.

Also, if someone finds your ball at 2:59, you're not penalized if it takes you 30 seconds to get over there and identify your ball. You can even take a minute or so to identify it, especially if identifying it requires marking, lifting, and possibly a little cleaning.

[cdh79]

Thanks for clearing this up! Yes, the other player was definitely less than 3 minutes away (maybe a minute, if even).

I was just hypothesizing what would had happened, if the other player had not been there within those 3 minutes (just for my own understanding in case this should ever come up).

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, cdh79 said:

I was just hypothesizing what would had happened, if the other player had not been there within those 3 minutes (just for my own understanding in case this should ever come up).

Then the Interpretations would begin to apply. But both… because he could argue that he suspended his search when he thought he'd found his ball, and then prepared to play, etc.