Poll: Lost Ball, What Do You Do?

[Soup Fan]

Sorry...that post was rushed because my baby was being cranky.

If I am hitting off of the tee and I put it in the drink or way out of bounds, I hit my drop from the tee. The same goes for my other shots. As long as I know immediately that I am done for (see a splash, hear windows breaking et al.) I will take my drop at the spot I initially hit from. Also, if I hit a ball off the tee that I cannot determine from the tee box whether or not it is playable, I hit a provisional. If the ball is lost I play my provisional plus penalty.

Usually, however, if I assume my ball is in play and I do not hit a drop or provisional and then end up unable to find it, I take my drop at the estimated location where my ball went out, plus the penalty stroke. I do not take the distance penalty under most circumstances. The main reason is for the sake of keeping pace.

I will admit that I am not familiar enough with the rules of golf, but I do pride myself of my etiquette and respect for the game, for the other players and for the course. I may not know every rule, and therefore do not play by every rule, but I also don't feel like that I am a cheater because of that. When I mess up, I penalize myself for it. I don't ground my club in traps. I replace my divots. I don't use my foot wedge. I don't walk through other people's lines on the green.

I want to get myself a rule book and learn them and play by them, but there are some rules (like drop & distance) that don't translate as well to public course golf. I understand in the controlled environment of a tournament or event where there is something at stake, but to the recreational player who is not in line to get a big cardboard check on the 18th green or to someone like me whose handicap is higher than his age I think the most important thing is to play at a good pace and show respect to the other players and to the course itself.

[lordhamster]

I'm a beginner, so for me my score is just to keep track of my progress and how well I'm hitting, not for competitive or handicap purposes.

If I hit a ball and it goes into the woods, of course I take a penalty.

If I hit a ball and it goes to the right rough near the treeline and I can't find it, I assume it rolled off into the woods (all too common for me) and take a penalty.

However, what has happened to me a few times playing w/ wife and or friends, I'll hit the best darned shot of the entire round, and we all see it fly straight/high right into the middle of the fairway... then I get to where the ball landed and it is just nowhere to be found. This has happened to me maybe 5-8 times in all the rounds I've played. In that case I'll drop where I think it landed and NOT take a stroke penalty.

For example, last week this happened. I was playing on a par5 that had another parallel par5 next to it. This is the kind of hole where the players from the other hole are often on your fairway trying to hit errant shots back to their own fairway.

Anyway, I nail a beautiful drive (personal best) about 275 straight down the middle of the fairway. Anyway, by the time I can walk to my ball, two carts have been over our fairway looking for balls and hitting a shot or two (was watching wife and friend hit other shots before I got to my ball also).

When I got to my ball it was just nowhere to be found, so I assume they either ran it over and planted it in the ground, or they hit my ball away by accident.

Counting such rare incidents like that as penalties doesn't really serve my goal of measuring my personal improvement.

[23Rounder]

If the ball is lost inbounds or out of bounds then the only option is to return to the tee. If a playing partner took a drop in a stroke round I wouldn't sign his card.

Playing socially you can do what you want but playing in a comp you play by the rules or play with someone else.

[welshy]

would trek back to the tee and re shoot, if it was a social round with friends and beers (that hasn't happened for years) we used to just drop close to where it went in as the cards weren't being handed in

[sacm3bill]

I do not take the distance penalty under most circumstances. The main reason is for the sake of keeping pace.

I think i'ts good that you don't go back to the tee if it's just a casual round, but you can still "sort of" take your distance penalty by adding one more stroke (i.e., two total penalty strokes.) That more accurately reflects the fact that if you *had* gone back and reteed, you'd be at your estimated location but lying 3, not 2. Of course that assumes you would've hit your second tee shot the same distance *and* been able to find it - so it's not a perfect system, but I do it since it's better than only adding one penalty stroke as you would for a hazard. OB or lost is meant to be more penal than that.

[tjy355]

I should point out that if you lose a ball in a casual round and you are going to drop one, you should add TWO strokes.

[TCCcaddie]

It depends on the group behind me. If they are really close or waiting to hit, i think that it is rude to make them wait even longer by going back to the original spot and hitting again, so i would drop around the area that i saw the ball going, using the edge of the woods or something like it as a hazard line and drop there. If they are far behind us then i would go back.

[MSDOGS1976]

If it's just a casual round, which it is every day, I just take an X on the hole and move on. Our guys play team match play daily(4 vs 4 for example) and someone will make a score we can use. We do this just to keep things moving. I do keep my own score for my personal knowledge, but if I blow my score because of a lost ball, I won't lose any sleep over it. Now if I know I have hit one OB, I do take the time to re-tee.

[golfunit]

If you don't go back and do it correctly, it is an automatic DQ in a tournament. If you don't and you're playing for money on total score, you automatically lose the bet.

Play by the rules, unless it's a casual round and it's slow.

Match play, automatic loss of hole.

[PianoSteve]

I actually found this forum searching for this very issue. I had decided to just drop and add a stroke, but wondered if others had opinions on it. Boy was I surprised to find this thread addressing that exact question! :)

Today, I played 18 with my son. Three times (on three different holes), I wasn't sure I'd be able to find my tee shot (blind shots and they looked like they were going into the rough). Ironically, the first two times I reloaded and yet found my first shot sitting solidly in the fairway!

On hole 18, I didn't reload, and couldn't find the ball. No one else was anywhere in sight, so I did go back to the tee and do it properly with stroke + distance.

Someone above mentioned adding TWO strokes when dropping to replace a lost ball. I never thought of that, but you are correct. It probably should be two strokes.

[kregan]

That is how I play it when I have lost a ball. I take a 2 stroke penalty and move along. I would be hitting my 4th shot after the drop.

I would imagine that is why my handicap is 25 and I play equally well as most of the 18-20 handicap players I get paired with.

So, in order to determine my "Most Likely Score", I play the lost ball as a lateral hazard and drop nearest to the spot where the ball was lost and take an

[clemsontiger]

I would say go back and retee, but the people on the course would really get mad so I usually drop in the worst possible spot to kind of add to the penelty shot that I am adding. Unless I am playing for score, or if the course is not busy at all I go back and retee the ball and try again with added strokes.

[Undr Par]

Personally,

bingo, I do the exact same....imo as you stated with speed of play in such great force these days on most/if not all tracks and seeing I'm not playing in any Tourneys, just take the penalty stroke and drop another....

[cigarnut81]

That is alot of cheaters!!!!!!!!!!!!

[schapman]

If I know it went out, I'll shoot another.

If i go to hit the second shot and can't find it, I'll drop behind where it went out and take a penalty.

Usually don't want to hold up the other players I'm with since the guys I'm with are definitely better than me.

[TheLauncher]

Had to go with option three, drop one and take a stroke from somewhere around the site of the lost ball. I find that it happens rarely, but unfortaunately the crowdedness of the course sometimes dictates the situation. In a casual round I cannot in good judgement move backwards on a hole, even if that means that an accurate and legal score for the round may be compromised. I'm lucky that at times my course is quiet enough to allow for the proper procedure of play in the case that a lost ball is not found.

[zeg]

I try to play a provisional every time I'm unsure since that solves the pace problems and is within the RoG.

If not, I take a drop in a reasonable estimate of where it went. Basically, I figure out where I was looking for it and drop there -- if I'm looking in the woods, I drop in the woods rather than going back to the fairway. Then I take two penalty strokes to simulate the stroke+distance.

The USGA response quoted early in the thread is interesting -- I'd not thought of the rule about incomplete holes for posting handicaps. Since I only play casual rounds that I use for my own unofficial handicap tracking, that provides something of an out. Since the "most likely score" is up to you to determine, it seems acceptable to me to go ahead and play out the hole unofficially (since you've already violated the RoG on the hole) and use that as your method for estimating your most likely score. Sure, you can't use it for an official round as it'd be a DQ, but for casual play it seems reasonable.