lost provisional ball. What to do

[mirv]

i'm glad i happened across this thread.  i'd never been quite clear on if you just stood there and kept hitting provisional after provisional or if after a certain number you just went up and dropped in proximity.  my standard approach during informal play - so as to not hold up the course and/or lose too many balls - is that if i hit a ball OB, then hit a provisional OB, i'll just mark a tree or bush or something near where my provisional went out and say "okay, i'm going to drop there and consider myself to be laying 5."  fortunately that doesn't happen just super often.

[luu5]

Originally Posted by horsesense

What do yo do if you lose your tee shot out of bounds and then your provisional ball sails the same way.  After looking for 5 min can you just drop and continue or do you hae to walk back to tee and hit another shot.  How do you assess penalty strokes.

Keith

I get the impression that there was no doubt about original ball going out of bounds. In this case it is not possible to hit provisional ball, but a new ball. This makes solving the case much easier.

[horsesense]

Thanks for the input.  It has only happened once so far.  And while we did not follow the rules exactly I feel we learned what to do the next time ( hopefully not anytime soon)  The rules are there for a purpose and even if I had a copy in front of me at the time I dont think I would have been able to decide the corrrect thing to do.  My son and I discussed wha to do if that happens again and will go forward from here.  I appreciate all the responses and feel it is definatley a good topic to get input from more experienced golfers.

Keith

[rustyredcab]

Happened years ago to me: hit drive near the ob - could see ball but could not tell if it was in. This was a client event and there were prizes and no maximum score for a hole. So, as a vendor and man of honor, I hit a provisional. No question -- it was OB. Hit another. And another. And another and, and , and ... Eventually hit one in play. Hit the next shot on the green, made a long putt for my 13. BTW, first ball was out by about two inches. Unless you are playing with a hole max, you just keep blasting away.

In my normal buddy games we put the ball in our pocket before getting to 13. Take the max for handicap and max for losing and bets and move on.