Lost Ball Rule

[jojoampt]

I dont think anyone is arguing the benefits of taking provisionals. I think that we are all pretty much thinking of that time when you hit a ball just off into the rough, where it should be very easy to find; but for some reason it isnt. I mean, do you really hit a provisional EVERY TIME you miss a fairway?? I sure as hell dont. I think im fairly liberal with provisionals, but theres always those times when you just cant find the damn ball when your tee shot was on a perfectly reasonable line. In this situation (if the course is busy) as stated above, Ill take 2 strokes and be laying 4 in the area where the ball should be.

Not gonna happen. How about people hit more provisionals? There's a solution that already exists. And pay attention to each other's golf balls.

[mad max]

I dont think anyone is arguing the benefits of taking provisionals... , do you really hit a provisional EVERY TIME you miss a fairway??

Heck I have hit the ball in the fairway and still couldn't find the ball. I admit it was in very wet conditions but the only way to be safe is to hit a provisional every time you can't see the ball from the tee.

That is not reasonable, people need to understand that the rules of golf are fine for serious play but on the weekend with friends on a busy course you have to compromise. I know some people think by dropping and taking a 2 stroke penalty I am not playing golf but some half assed version of the game. I think these people take themselves too seriously. I putt everything out but somtimes when I hit a good chip someone I am playing with will say good shot and hit the ball back to me. Rather than be an ass and take my ball and put it where I thought it was and finish out I will just say thanks. I then wright down the score like I made the putt. I know this is not playing by the rules but it makes the game more relaxed and friendly.

[flopdarock]

ppl bitch an moan about pace of play...
but really... if the group in front of you is slow... would it piss you off more that they came back to the teebox or have them drop a ball where ever they think they lost it...
its no biggie to me if the group in front is cheating their pants off as long as i dont have to wait all day for them...
if its in my group id make a suggestion to hit another one just in case... "wow... i think that one went in to the woods... tee up another one" if they refuse... then its up to them to take a drop if they cant find it... most of the time they wont go back to the teebox to hit another one... embarassment or knowledge that they are slowing everything down... whatever... keep it moving forward

[msd3075]

I know rule won't be changed. My point was, even with 3 or 4 people watching a ball, seeing it land, then searching for a few minutes, they just disappear sometimes. There is no need to hit a provisional at all. The ball was in play. The ball could have went over a small tree or a mound off the fairway an you didn't see it come to rest. There is no danger of losing it to a hazard or OB, but when you get up to the spot you just can't find it. It could hit a rock and bounce way left, or even get stuck in a tree, maybe the beverage cart ran over it an buried it the ground, a leaf could blow over the ball and you just don't see it. The ball was in play, and you have no other reason to believe otherwise, so you have no reason to hit a provisional.

I understand what yo uare saying, but you are describing the extreme exception to this situation. I'm willing to assume 99% of the time when a ball is lost, the situation/lie/shot direction should ahve warranted hitting a provisional. Sometimes shit happens.

[JBK]

Yeah, but there will always be the occasional ball lost in the light rough where it's almost impossible to know that you'll need the provisional.

I agree. There have been a few times when there was absolutely no reason to think my ball might be lost but I was unable to find it.

[Fat Slice]

I agree. There have been a few times when there was absolutely no reason to think my ball might be lost but I was unable to find it.

Like when some SENIOR played my drive while going up the adjacent fairway. I found his ball (we were both playing yellow balls, I can see why he mad a mistake, but stil...). I saw him on his green inspecting "his" ball and showing it to his buddies. They had a good laugh over the "Spongebob" cartoon face (yes, I was playing a Spongebob ball...wanna make something of it?).

And sometimes a ball can invisibly plug or go down a gopher hole - you never know.

[MiniMoe]

It's pretty simple really. In casual rounds, who cares. The USGA has limits on how much you can score on any individual hole, so if you lose your ball, take the limit and be done with it. The rule is perfect. There has been debate on changing the rule, but doing so would violate the heart of the game. If you lose your ball, drop from where you played your last and continue. In tournament play, when in doubt... play a provisional. You can do so at any time..... even if you stripe one down the middle. You can always declare that you think you might have lost a ball and are going to play a provisional. It saves time, but be thoughtful of others and go ahead and play a provisional.

Two years ago I play in a US Open qualifier. One of the guys I was playing with hooked his drive toward a thin sliver of a water hazard. He played a provisional for a lost ball (just in case he could not be sure it was in the hazard), then hit his provisional way right into the junk. He should have played a provisional for the provisional, but did not. After 5 minutes of looking for the first ball, he began to look for the second ball. With only a short time to spare, someone found it and we continued. If he had not found it, he would have had to go back to the tee, or go back to his car.

We play a lot of gambling games, so if we lose a ball, we just pick up.... no worries, just lost money.

[MiniMoe]

One more thing... I hate slow play. The only thing worse than the guy who can't break 120 and taking all day to do it with two practice swings every shot because he know the good swing is in there somewhere, is the guy that can't break 120 with two practice swings every shot and comes back to the tee after losing another ball because he forgot to hit a provisional with the excuse that he only plays real golf. Pick the damn thing up... there is not much difference between 120 and 130. Keep up with the group ahead of you or don't play the game. I don't care that you don't play well. If you keep up and don't play well, you are always welcome in my group.... But just keep up... no practice swings, no plumb bobbing putts, no going back to the cart for a 7 when you have a 6 in your hand.... it does not make a bit of difference.....You can top that 6 iron just a good as you can top the 7 iron, so hurry up and do it.


Rant over.

[SubPar]

If you are going to drop a ball where it went OB the shot after your drop should be your 4th shot because thats how it would be if you had went back and re-teed, you would be laying 3 after the re-teed ball. Thats how I do it anyway.

I took and SCGA class once and they explained it this way... if you can't find your ball, or you are OB, and it is impractical to go back to the tee, you can drop a ball (like most people do) in bounds, or where you think your lost ball went. You take the 1 penalty for the normal "stroke and distance" plus an additonal 2 strokes for playing the ball from the wrong place, so a total of 3 strokes.

So if you hit 1 from the tee you'd be hitting 5. That's pretty stiff so if there's any question, hit a "provisional ball" before you leave the tee. And you have to use the words "Provisonal ball", not "I'm going to reload" or "I'll hit another one just in case" (if you want to be a stickler about it). The provisional ball does not play if it turns out you went in a water hazard (as Greg Norman!). And you can hit your provisonal ball a 2nd or 3rd time and still play your original "lost" ball if it is found IF you have not actually hit the provisional at a point beyond where the original ball came to rest. I'm pretty sure I am right about this, but with golf rules, seldom positive. SubPar

[HackerD]

Great thread. One other thought: my home course is a woodland course, lots of trees. They've marked the woods as a lateral hazard on several holes, usually when it's a little swampy. This helps keep pace going, you don't have to hit a provisional or search exhaustively for the ball in the woods.

[jcorfive]

Great thread. One other thought: my home course is a woodland course, lots of trees. They've marked the woods as a lateral hazard on several holes, usually when it's a little swampy. This helps keep pace going, you don't have to hit a provisional or search exhaustively for the ball in the woods.

A course that I enjoy playing near my town has marked all heavily wooded areas on the course as a lateral hazard. Its not hard to tell if your ball went in there either. It is either in the woods or in water or sand or the rough. Occasionally I hit one in the fairway.

[Bourbon and Coke]

I've hit an approach shot onto the green, watched it stop, watched my partner hit, saw it stop on the green, and when we got up there, my ball was missing. We both clearly saw both of our balls sitting on the green, but once we got to the cart, the angle of the cart path makes the green pretty much blind while driving, and one of the balls up and disappeared. We got up there to find 2 ball marks and 1 ball. Mine just up and disappeared. The rules don't really compensate me in this situation.

As it was, since my ball mark was short of the hole, we just placed by ball at the front edge of the ball mark and played it, considering the extra distance as enough penalty. It went onto the scorecard as a "WTF"

Also, for everyone concerned about pace of play issues, why are you looking at the groups behind you and not the group in front of you? If there is a group in front of you and two groups behind you, you can get back to the original location, hit a provisional, get to the new ball location, and take the last shot in your foursome without slowing the pace of play at all. The groups behind you don't set your pace of play, the group in front of you does.

[SubPar]

I've hit an approach shot onto the green, watched it stop, watched my partner hit, saw it stop on the green, and when we got up there, my ball was missing. We both clearly saw both of our balls sitting on the green, but once we got to the cart, the angle of the cart path makes the green pretty much blind while driving, and one of the balls up and disappeared. We got up there to find 2 ball marks and 1 ball. Mine just up and disappeared. The rules don't really compensate me in this situation.

I would just rule that the ball was moved by an outside agent (a bird, person, badger, whatever). You could place the ball where you last saw it at rest with no penalty.

SubPar

[lumpuckeroo]

My group is pretty liberal with a lost ball, if we know for sure the ball is headed to the woods, we play by the rules. But if we play a ball, think it is good and simply can't find it (gophers took it), we don't go back and hit. The courses we play are simply to crowded to be able to do that. We drop, take a penalty stroke and move on.