You hit a drive on hole #2. As your ball nears the left bunker it strikes something hard, bounces high in the air, going left and disappears down the hill. It is a dry day and you know the ball might have rolled all the way down the hill and out of bounds. So, you announce that you are going to play a provisional ball and you tee it up. Then you swing. But oh, no! You looked up. The club barely clipped the top of the ball. The ball rolls off the tee box and stops. After a few muttered expletives you walk towards your provisional ball to hit it a second time. But your partner stops you. “If you hit that, it will be your ball in play and you’ll be lying 4. Don’t you want to search for your original ball first?”
What would you do?
A. What if your partner is right? If your original ball is not out of bounds you’d be lying 1 near the green. If you hit the provisional ball you’d then be lying 4. Of course you search for your original ball.
B. You think your partner is wrong. You can hit the provisional until you reach your original ball. And the whole point of playing a provisional is to save time. So you hit it.
B is correct.
Look in your Rules of Golf book at
Rule #27-2
b. When Provisional Ball Becomes Ball in Play
The player may play a provisional ball until he reaches the place where the original ball is likely to be. If he makes a stroke with the provisional ball from the place where the original ball is likely to be or from a point nearer the hole than that place, the original ball is lost and the provisional ball becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance (Rule 27-1).
REMEMBER: Once you hit a provisional ball you can hit it as many times as you need to until you reach the place where the original ball is likely to be. If you then find your original ball in bounds you can play it. In this case, if you found your original ball in bounds you’d be lying one.
b. When Provisional Ball Becomes Ball in Play
The player may play a provisional ball until he reaches the place where the original ball is likely to be. If he makes a stroke with the provisional ball from the place where the original ball is likely to be or from a point nearer the hole than that place, the original ball is lost and the provisional ball becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance (Rule 27-1).
REMEMBER: Once you hit a provisional ball you can hit it as many times as you need to until you reach the place where the original ball is likely to be. If you then find your original ball in bounds you can play it. In this case, if you found your original ball in bounds you’d be lying one.
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