Don't you hate losing a ball after putting it in-play?

[RayG]

Play at some of the crowded NYC courses and this is a fact of life. Hit a booming drive dead center over a little crest and it should be sitting pretty 130 yds out. Only by the time you get there, some idiot who sliced off the tee on the next fairway has walked over to play his ball and sees a brand new ProV1 with nobody around. Yoink! It is not an uncommon occurrence, either. It's one of the reasons I won't play a few of the courses- it's a shooting gallery for one thing, and there seems to be no scruples among like minded people. The last time I DID play, I hit the above described shot and was making my way up the rough to keep out of the way of the folks I played with. I was standing at the top of the hill next to a tree looking at my ball and how I'm set up for a nice 9I in. Guy wanders up from the other direction, looking for his ball, finds it in the rough on our side of the hole. He plays his punch back to his fairway, then proceeds to walk straight to my ball, take a quick look around and picks it up. FROM THE CENTER OF THE FAIRWAY! I said nothing..yet. I started down the fairway and met him at the edge of his fairway... And screamed in his face: "GIMME MY BALL!!!". He blinked a few times and started to say "I didn't..." I cut him off with: "TITLELIST 5! WITH MY NAME ON IT! IN THAT POCKET!" He handed it over... no "sorry", no apologies, just a look like he might have just crapped himself, or pee'd a bit. It drives me crazy when the people I'm playing with can possibly believe that a ball magically appears in the middle of a fairway,just for them to pick them up. Especially on a course with almost all parallel fairways and not known for the skill level of the players. You can SEE people walking towards it, I WATCHED the ball roll there from the tee, and you think it's a free ball? Other balls in the fairway are off limits, between fairways are generally off limits, And even balls found in a grove of trees you cant get to with a chainsaw are left there, mostly because they'e probably been there awhile and are crap anyway. To be honest, I don't pick up balls at all... Would you want that to happen to you? just leave them.

[David in FL]

Play at some of the crowded NYC courses and this is a fact of life. Hit a booming drive dead center over a little crest and it should be sitting pretty 130 yds out. Only by the time you get there, some idiot who sliced off the tee on the next fairway has walked over to play his ball and sees a brand new ProV1 with nobody around. Yoink! It is not an uncommon occurrence, either. It's one of the reasons I won't play a few of the courses- it's a shooting gallery for one thing, and there seems to be no scruples among like minded people. The last time I DID play, I hit the above described shot and was making my way up the rough to keep out of the way of the folks I played with. I was standing at the top of the hill next to a tree looking at my ball and how I'm set up for a nice 9I in. Guy wanders up from the other direction, looking for his ball, finds it in the rough on our side of the hole. He plays his punch back to his fairway, then proceeds to walk straight to my ball, take a quick look around and picks it up. FROM THE CENTER OF THE FAIRWAY! I said nothing..yet. I started down the fairway and met him at the edge of his fairway... And screamed in his face: "GIMME MY BALL!!!". He blinked a few times and started to say "I didn't..." I cut him off with: "TITLELIST 5! WITH MY NAME ON IT! IN THAT POCKET!" He handed it over... no "sorry", no apologies, just a look like he might have just crapped himself, or pee'd a bit. It drives me crazy when the people I'm playing with can possibly believe that a ball magically appears in the middle of a fairway,just for them to pick them up. Especially on a course with almost all parallel fairways and not known for the skill level of the players. You can SEE people walking towards it, I WATCHED the ball roll there from the tee, and you think it's a free ball? Other balls in the fairway are off limits, between fairways are generally off limits, And even balls found in a grove of trees you cant get to with a chainsaw are left there, mostly because they'e probably been there awhile and are crap anyway. To be honest, I don't pick up balls at all... Would you want that to happen to you? just leave them.

Wow. Glad that didn't happen to me. I'd have made the 11 o'clock news. Maybe the national news....!

[Spyder]

I hear you and I definitely would have been pissed off as well. One thing I hate about our local course is that they do not maintain the rough the way that they should. They justify the length of the rough by saying it's more "challenging", but I know the workers personally and I know it's just sheer laziness and not dedicating resources to proper course maintenance. In short, you miss the fairway and you're spending nearly 5 minutes searching for your ball. A typical round here takes 4.5-5 hours for two people as a result.

The biggest issue is that people find your ball buried in the rough when they are looking for theirs in a similar area from a parallel hole and they assume it is theirs and they end up playing your ball. I've actually lost a ball with my initials on it (Titleist 1 NXT Tour) and one hole later saw a guy shank his tee shot into our fairway. I approached the ball as I also put one conveniently right next to it by complete chance and luck. Sure as S, both balls were identical and I waited for the guy. In this case, he apologized and admitted he played it down and didn't look.

Annoying as hell.

[dbuck]

Well of course the CORRECT answer is stroke and distance. You can see how the rule evolved-if you can't see the ball where you think it is there is no proof that it is there. Happened to Appleby or Ogilvy at Farmers one year, but he had obviously gone in the grunch but couldn't find it so lost ball. For me( and most I play with) the PRACTICAL answer is usually drop one count a stroke and keep playing. As others have said, people on the course, casual game, slow play etc., it is just too much sugar for a dime. If it is a stroke play tournament I will be CORRECT, a casual game , busy course, etc. I will be PRACTICAL.

[Meltdwhiskey]

Wow.  Those are some tough conditions to play in.  I guess we have it easy down here in Georgia.  I play year round - and it gets pretty wet sometimes, but not wet enough to lose a ball in its own mark! Or in the snow!  I'm not sure how I would handle that.  Maybe they need yet another rule

Having said that, I still see it plenty of times where people want to drop for a lost ball - roughly where it was lost and take a 1-stroke penalty.  If you do this - you are gifting yourself 200+ yards because you did not take the distace portion of the penalty.  It is a terrible rule - and I thin it should be changed - but it is the same for everyone.  Should be anyway.

If it is slow, of course you can go back to the tee box.  But that is not usually the case.  And when it is busy, I just take 2 strokes - one for the penalty stroke and one for the distance.  I know the rules don't really allow for this - but it seems the most fair thing to do.  Obviosly more fair than just ignoring the distance portion of the penalty.  The handicap system does allow for something like "most probably score" you would have made on a hole - in the event you can't actually finish it.  Seems like this could be housed there.