Ever lost your ball in the middle of a fairway?

[NBGC]

I absolutely hate this. Smack it down the fairway, see it land and roll. Walk up to where the ball should be, and can't find it ANYWHERE. I've gotten into the habit of watching my ball for as long as I can after I hit it, my partners tease me by saying i'm posing or admiring the shot. It baffles me where the ball could end up. Murphy's Law I guess.

What really sucks is that I have to take 2 stroke penalty because I didn't hit a provisional. Who hits a provisional when the ball is in the fairway?! So I drop where I think it shoulda been and hitting 3. And using the 1 stroke penalty and rehitting the ball doesn't work for our grp, as we try to save time and be considerate to the other groups.

Good thing PGA Pro's have spotters

[Awsi Dooger]

I'm sure I've done it although I can't pinpoint an example. In my 40s my eyes have worsened and occasionally I don't always pick up the ball off the clubface on drives. When I'm playing in Las Vegas one of my playing partners will see it, so it's no problem, but it's comical when I'm in Miami playing with my parents.

Mom sits in the cart and waits her turn. She never watches our shots other than to laugh when my dad shanks one and curses. Dad has a ridiculous habit of looking too low for his shots. He has a great arc for a senior and hits it very high but for some reason he always looks much lower, along the trajectory of my shots. Consequently he loses his ball all the time. In fact, it's very common for them to drive back and forth, baffled where their golf balls are. If they weren't my parents I'd be buckling over in laughter. Mom hits orange golf balls and dad standard white ones. I walk. Often I'll be chasing my ball in the rough and I'll turn and see mom's ball 100 yards back. Dad gets so frustrated with his game he'll drive smack past my mom's ball and she doesn't notice because she's convinced she hits it about twice as far as she does. This happens all the time: We'll meet at the green and dad will say, "We lost your mother's ball." Then I'll point back to the middle of the fairway about 150 yards back. At that point they'll jump in the cart and drive back, even though the trailing group is waiting to hit to the green. We always wave 5 or 6 groups through when I play with them.

That's during summer and Christmas time. The rest of the year they play by themselves and whenever I get a cell phone rundown of my dad's round inevitably he'll say, "I lost at least 6 balls today. Four of them were right down the middle, or so I thought."

I wish I were exaggerating.

[23Rounder]

It has happened to me before and is very frustrating especially when you are having a good round and just hit a great drive that everyone in your group saw land in the middle of the fairway. I am assuming you already know this but incase you don't, if you want to follow the rules correctly you don't have the option of dropping a ball where you think it stopped and taking a two stroke penalty. The only option is to declare the ball lost and walk back to the tee to hit another. You are still penalised and are now hitting 3 off the tee.

[Dub]

I'm trying to remember a case....


I did loose one just off the fairway in one of the last rounds I played. Number 10, par five at Midland Valley. I hit a decent drive that carried the left fairway bunker....should've only missed the fairway by just a couple of yards.

The rough wasn't very tall at all....I should know....was hitting out of it way too often on the front nine.

Anyway....spent forever looking for my ball but had to take a drop when a group stepped up to the tee box (the green was already open). Hit a great hybrid shot to the fringe and chipped tight and tapped in. What should've been a birdie was worse.

I tried not to let it get me rattled.....stuff happens. It was just strange to be standing sooooo close and not see it.

[imtomtomim]

Well, I was playing a casual short nine on my school's course and I was hitting pretty well. There were a bunch of groups ahead of me but I didn't mind taking my time. My drives were going pretty long and I could trace where they were going especially because I knew the course so well and it's easy to figure out about where your ball would roll to. I lost 2 sleeves of these nike balls that were given to me as a gift. I mean, I'm not that bent about losing those balls but 2 sleeves is rediculous. I usually play 3 balls at most for 9. Turns out, I hit one about 295 or so on the 7th hole and I spray to the right of the green which is also the rough of the 8th hole. on my way over, I'm about 30 yards away, I hear, "I keep finding these nike balls. Isn't it great?" Anyways, he picks up the ball, drives away, I start yelling, cursing, whatever. I was pissed. These jerks have been snatching my balls all day. I wouldn't be suprised if they'd pick it up rolling.

[JohnTwing]

In my experience, this is more often than not someone pilfering your ball.

[dragonflyin]

In my experience, this is more often than not someone pilfering your ball.

Ditto, that or some woodland creature though it was an egg and made off with it.

[dave s]

In another 'score reducing' effort, playing the same ball for an entire round has become an obsession of sorts with me. I know how far I hit the driver and do a good job picking out 'landmarks' to locate the ball.

Like a few others here, my eyes are going (don't wear glasses or contacs on the cours) and seeing the ball fly ends at about 120 yards. In that period of time, I can see the flight direction and shot shape and usually walk or drive within a few yards of, and locate my ball.

Two weekends ago I wasn't driving the ball down the middle. Most drives were hit solidly, but blocked right into rough which wasn't very deep. I lost FOUR of those tee shots! A couple of times, picked out very visible landmarks exactly on the line of flight. Get out there, no ball ANYWHERE! The one I DID find was on a par-5 with yardages marked on the cart path. Took hole length minus distance to hole and went to 230 yards from tee. When I finally found THAT one, (sitting down in the rough) my golf cart was within 10 yards of the ball where I began my search.

Honestly, not being able to find a ball is #1 on my golf frustration list. Missing a 'kick in' putt for birdie would be a very distant #2. That's how much losing a ball ON the course (not in any hazard) grinds me! Hitting one OB or into a pond is one thing, but not being able to locate a ball when you know where they are is another.

And you're hitting them in the fairway and losing them?!!! That's brutal!

dave

[Smallville]

Once in a great while this will happen to us also. We don't play for handicap or money so if it's agreed that it should be "right here," we'll drop and go. If there's the slightest chance it shouldn't have been "right here," then we'll drop with penalty. But has only happened a handful of times in all the years we've golfed so it's not that big a deal. What's really great is when you know it's in the woods but you get down there and there's a ball sitting out in the middle of the fairway and it's the ball that should have been in the woods! (It hit a tree and bounced right on out there!). That's happened even less times, unfortunately!

[powerfade]

I was less than a minute away from declaring a lost ball this past Saturday in a tourney. The ball was found...plugged. (Moist fairways during the overseeding).

[NBGC]

It has happened to me before and is very frustrating especially when you are having a good round and just hit a great drive that everyone in your group saw land in the middle of the fairway. I am assuming you already know this but incase you don't, if you want to follow the rules correctly you don't have the option of dropping a ball where you think it stopped and taking a two stroke penalty. The only option is to declare the ball lost and walk back to the tee to hit another. You are still penalised and are now hitting 3 off the tee.

Ya, we understand the rules, it's just we're courteous to the other groups since we're not playing for high stakes or anything. Better to take the stroke penalty and not the distance penalty. Imagine you're out at the course and the group in front of you comes back to the tee box to rehit a ball after they've been looking for it for 5 mins. This isn't a tourney so we're all agreed on lost balls being played as oob/water loss.

[mikelz]

Playing 9 with my father a long time ago:
615 yard par five on a private course

Drive down the middle - nothing - back to the tee
Second drive down the middle
Three wood down the middle - nothing - back to the last spot

Made a 9, never hit a bad shot, never out of the fairway

I really hate lost balls.

[MPS67]

Last Sunday, my friend smashed a drive down the middle from an extremely elevated tee box (maybe 100 ft. up from the fairway.) It rained in the wee hours of the morning and must have softened the ground. We came to the spot where we thought his ball landed --- nothing! We looked around some more --- not a thing. After careful inspection, we noticed tiny bores in the ground here and there, and after digging out what must have been a dozen balls, we finally found his. We then knew why it took so long for the previous group to move on from their 2nd shot. They probably couldn't find theirs and simply dropped.

[Awsi Dooger]

Well, I was playing a casual short nine on my school's course and I was hitting pretty well. There were a bunch of groups ahead of me but I didn't mind taking my time. My drives were going pretty long and I could trace where they were going especially because I knew the course so well and it's easy to figure out about where your ball would roll to. I lost 2 sleeves of these nike balls that were given to me as a gift. I mean, I'm not that bent about losing those balls but 2 sleeves is rediculous. I usually play 3 balls at most for 9. Turns out, I hit one about 295 or so on the 7th hole and I spray to the right of the green which is also the rough of the 8th hole. on my way over, I'm about 30 yards away, I hear, "I keep finding these nike balls. Isn't it great?" Anyways, he picks up the ball, drives away, I start yelling, cursing, whatever. I was pissed. These jerks have been snatching my balls all day. I wouldn't be suprised if they'd pick it up rolling.

Good story. I'm amazed at the number of golfers who seemingly have tunnel vision, or convenient short term ignorance, and can't comprehend that a golf ball can stray considerably from intended target. My driver has been wild upon the switch to 45 inch length and bucket clubheads. Many times I've blown it into the adjacent fairway on the right and watched the group on that hole nonchalantly pick it up without even looking in my direction.

My dad is a prime offender. He'll confidently pick up golf balls and assert there's no way they came from a nearby hole. Then I'll point to the cart zipping in our direction. Last time I played with my parents, a hot shot behind us hit a drive slightly over the green on a short downwind 330 yard par 4. My dad picked the ball up even as I was yelling at him to leave it alone. I had watched the ball scamper across the green. Years ago at Calusa Country Club in Miami he picked up O.J. Simpson's ball. O.J. always played that course until hurricane Katrina destroyed the clubhouse in summer 2005. My mom was telling dad it was O.J.'s ball but he drove away assuring her there was no chance. Then he saw O.J. heading to the location. He kept that ball for more than a year, joking about the circumstance. Earlier in this thread I mentioned my parents can't find their golf balls and when I'm playing with them in Miami we normally have to let 5 to 6 groups pass. I can't count how many times I've "lost" a golf ball in that situation. I'll hit a drive then my parents have trouble not far off the tee. We wave the trailing group forward. Then it will be maddening when that knucklehead group heads in the area of my ball and I watch them pick it up and dart away. I mean, it's like the variable of a group they just passed never enters their mind, that the ball could be from that group. Remarkable how poorly my voice carries when I'm screaming at a group that it's my golf ball. Once a few months ago my best drive ever on a particular par 5 was swooped away in that situation. Once I remember a thoughtful young hispanic guy drove back and apologized profusely, after realizing it must have been my ball.

[JohnTwing]

Once in a great while this will happen to us also. We don't play for handicap or money so if it's agreed that it should be "right here," we'll drop and go. If there's the slightest chance it shouldn't have been "right here," then we'll drop with penalty. But has only happened a handful of times in all the years we've golfed so it's not that big a deal. What's really great is when you know it's in the woods but you get down there and there's a ball sitting out in the middle of the fairway and it's the ball that should have been in the woods! (It hit a tree and bounced right on out there!). That's happened even less times, unfortunately!

Yeah, the rulebook says "virtually certain", but often it is impossible to come up with another expanation.

[DJYoshi]

twice.
1st time: 50 feet elevated tee box. you saw my ball hit the ground and plug. it plugged about 2" below. i did a lift, clean, drop and everyone was cool with it.

2nd time: 70 feet elevated box. my ball went up and came DOWN HARD! it plugged about 2 feet into the ground. you saw the hole and my ball inside the hole. it was the weirdest thing i've ever seen. it only rained an inch the night before.

[Bogie Hokie]

Well maybe to put things in perspective. Today I drove a ball straight down the middle of the fairway, hit once jumped 10 yards directly to the left. They just went through with aerator so it must have hit a sizeable whole, clump of dirt or a sprinkler cap. It stayed in the fairway for me but there have been times where I think I drive a ball down the middle but can't see the ball land because the fairway goes downhill quite a way and the ball is nowhere to be seen.