Who gets penalty if the other guy hits my ball?

[scv76]

Hi everyone

Odd thing happened this weekend on a short par 4 hole

Two of us hit ball into middle of fairway; one ball was about 10 yards further than the other.

The other guy goes up to the first ball, looks at it, hits it onto the green, and jumps back into his cart and heads down the edge of fairway towards green.

I drive up to the next ball and discover that it is not mine...after looking for my ball and not finding it, I thought I had to declare a lost ball.

I go back to tee box and start all over again hitting 3. When I get to the green, I discover the other guy was hitting my original marked ball. It wasn't really lost after all!!

What should I have done in this circumstance? Should I have been able to go back to the approximate place in the fairway and hit a ball from there, and not count the lost ball re-hit etc.?

I know the other player gets penalties for playing a wrong ball.

I think once a ball is declared lost for any reason, even this circumstance, I can't go back to where it was and continue the hole with that ball.

Is this one of those times when I get penalized even though I had no control over the other guy's actions?

[Ignorant]

Assuming we are talking about stroke play?

The other player is an outside agency (see R18-1) and in such case where an outside agency moves your ball in play you may replace your ball (or another ball if original ball is not readily available) with no penalties. The other player gets 2 penalties for playing a wrong ball (R15-3), as you mentioned.

In the case at hand you will get problems if there is no evidence that a rub of the green has occurred. If you do not find your ball within 5 minutes it is lost. If it is known or virtually certain that an outside agency has moved your ball and it cannot be found then you will follow R18-1 and replace another ball with no penalty.

In match play it is easy: if your opponent plays your ball he loses the hole.

Let me add that when you went back to the tee and played a new ball your original ball was lost and you were lying three. At that point you cannot go back to the  place where your ball was played by the outside agency.

(Edit: Sorry, mixed up R18-1 and R19-1. The latter talks about a moving ball deflected by an outside agency. It is of course 18-1 that applies.)

[scv76]

Thank you for the explaination

Could have saved myself some strokes had I handled the situation differently...next time I will know

[montru]

Once you declare your first ball a "lost ball" and play another ball, your first ball is no longer in play regardless of whether you find it or not.

[zeg]

Originally Posted by montru

Once you declare your first ball a "lost ball" and play another ball, your first ball is no longer in play regardless of whether you find it or not.

Small, but very important, point: you cannot "declare" your first ball to be lost.  A ball can only become lost in two ways: you do not find it within five minutes of beginning your search, or you put another ball into play.

This may be what you mean, but one has to be careful when using the word "declare" or "deem."  In this case, when you're talking about putting another ball in play, the distinction doesn't matter, but the procedures are different if, say, a provisional ball has been hit.

[VOX]

Good point. Many golfers mistakenly think they can "declare" their ball lost if they hit a good provisional and that's it. If your opponent finds your first ball before you hit your provisional from beyond where the first ball is likely to be, you must identify it and abandon your provisional.

The most extreme example of this occurred when a golfer hit a ball deep into the woods on a par three and then hit a provisional into the hole. The golfer declared the first ball lost and claimed a "three". Unfortunately for him, his opponent found the first ball before he removed the provisional from the hole. The player declared the first ball unplayable, went back to the tee and hit another ball and made six. In this circumstance, since he does not hit the provisional again once it is holed, the USGA says that the provisional counts once he removes it from the hole.