Driving off course

Wenham Country Club pro Peter Collins clarifies the sometimes confusing rule for a provisional ball.

“I was playing a match with one of my buddies when we had a dispute over a lost ball. We’re hoping you can clarify the situation.
“We were at a par-5 when I hooked my tee shot about 260 yards down the ride side of the fairway. From the looks of it, I thought the ball was lost, so I hit a provisional tee shot that landed down the middle of the fairway and was about 235 yards long.
“When we walked up to my provisional shot, I didn’t think that my original shot would be found so I hit my second ball and agreed to take the one-stroke penalty. Right after I hit my shot, one of the guys we were playing with yelled over to me and said that he had found my first shot further down the fairway. I was glad that he did because it was in play and had a pretty good lie. Obviously, I preferred to play that ball and not take the penalty.
“My buddy had a different view of things, however. He said that since I had already declared my ball lost and hit my provisional, I would have to use the second tee shot and take a one-stroke penalty. I told him that since the allotted time of five minutes to find a lost ball had not passed, my first tee shot was still playable. I continued to play my first shot and I ended up winning our match. But I haven’t heard the end of it from my friend, who said I cheated on that hole.
“What is the correct ruling?”
- J.O. Marblehead, MA

Dear J.O.,

Losing a ball can be frustrating, but it is important to keep a cool head and apply the rules to the situation.

You did the right thing by playing a provisional ball. If your original ball had been lost, you would have had a long, lonely walk back to the tee. The provisional ball saves time and frustration.

Rule 27-2b allows you to play the provisional ball until you reach the place where the original ball is thought to be. Since your provisional was farther from the hole than your original tee shot, you saved time by playing your next stroke with the provisional before searching for the original ball.

Even though you declared your ball lost, the rules still provide five minutes for the search and the original ball remains the ball in play (see Decisions on the Rules of Golf 27/16). You applied the rules correctly when you played the original ball and abandoned the provisional ball.

However, if your provisional ball had landed nearer to the hole or in the area where your first tee shot was thought to be and you played that shot before the person in your group found your original ball, you would have been forced to use the provisional ball and suffer the penalty.

One way to resolve this conflict without bruising friendships is to play both balls into the hole under rule 3-3. This allows a player to get the ruling from an official (such as your local PGA professional) at some later time in the round. Try that next time. It won’t save time, but it will prevent you being called a cheater.