Provisional ball

[David in FL]

Your question - no, the next ball only bears a relationship to the previous ball (Decision 27-2a/4). In the situation that you've described, the second ball is now no longer in play. If the original ball is found within five minutes, it is still the ball in play; if not found within five minutes, the third ball is in play, lying five if play originated from the tee.

Got it. Thanks.

[Fourputt]

It can be confusing if you don't know the rules and the jargon.  But it's pretty much common sense once you know the intent.  The purpose of a provisional ball is to speed up play if there's a reasonable chance you'll end up in a situation where you need to go back and re-tee.  There are only two situations where you must go back and re-tee: (i) you can't find your ball, (ii) your ball is OB.  If you hit your tee shot and you think there's a chance you'll encounter either of those two situations, you may hit a provisional.

One tricky thing is that you can not hit a provisional for a ball you know is in a water hazard.  You may choose to re-tee, but in doing so you are simply declaring the first ball lost and hitting 3 off the tee (or 5 or 7 or whatever).  If you hit a ball in a water hazard, you may not hit a provisional and then choose whether you'll be better off playing your 4th stroke from where your provisional lies or playing your 3rd stroke from where you can drop outside the hazard.  That gives you two balls in play which is always against the rules.

That leaves one other tricky thing.  What if you hit a ball that may be in a water hazard but may also be in play?  My understanding of the rules is that because you're not almost certain the ball went into the hazard, you basically can't play it as if it went into the water.  You can't just declare it went into the water even though you're not sure just because you like your chances better playing 3 from where you'd drop better than playing 3 from the tee.  You are also not allowed to hit a provisional, go look for your ball, not find it, then declare that since it's gone it must have gone into the hazard and play a drop.  This is essentially a sneaky way of accomplishing the two balls in play thing I mentioned, since when you don't find your ball you'd be able to decide if you're better off playing a drop or playing your provisional.

If it is known that there is no place that the ball could be lost outside of the water hazard, meaning that there is no deep rough or other such issues on the line the ball was taking when it goes out of sight, then no provisional ball is allowed, since the ball is either going to be found outside of the hazard or it's in the hazard.  If that is not known, or if it is known that there is an area of deep rough on that line, then a provisional would be allowed.

It is for such situations that the USGA generally recommends that any deep or native grass adjacent to a water hazard be included within the margin of the hazard.  This removes any doubt as to the possible status of the ball.  That is just one of many small things that a course can do to help speed play without changing the nature or difficulty of the course.