2006 #10 How many times can you play your provisional ball?

THE SCENE:
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.

2003 #7 Is it a provisional ball?

The Scene:
You are playing hole #4. You pull your second shot from the fairway left towards the big white rock, surrounded by flowers. You drive over to the rock and search in the flowers. You can't find your ball, so you look beyond the rock. Someone suggests that you go back and hit a provisional ball while they continue the search. You go back to the spot on the fairway from where you last hit. You drop another ball, declaring it a provisional ball, and play it from there. You chunk the ball and it stops about 25 yards away. Then one of the players, searching, calls out, "I found it! It's okay. It's in bounds." Your original ball has been found within 5 minutes of the time the search began.
 
What would you do?
A. Play your original ball which lies 2. You'd be hitting 3.
B.  Play your second (prov?) ball which lies 4. You'd be hitting 5.

B is correct.

If your second ball was actually a provisional ball, A would be the correct answer. But a provisional ball has to be played before you go forward to search. You searched first. So your second ball was not a provisional ball.

Rule #27-2 says:
The player shall inform his opponent in match play or his marker or a fellow-competitor in stroke play that he intends to play a provisional ball, and he shall play it before he or his partner goes forward to search for the original ball.
If he fails to do so and plays another ball, such ball is not a provisional ball and becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance (Rule 27-1); the original ball is deemed to be lost.

The purpose of playing a provisional ball is to save time. If you think your ball might be lost (outside a water hazard) or may be out of bounds, to save time hit another ball. But do so before you begin your search.

In this scenario your second ball is not a provisional ball. It is your ball in play. Add a penalty stroke for a lost ball and you are lying 4.

REMEMBER: Once you have started a search for your ball, you have given up the privilege of hitting a provisional ball. Search until your 5 minutes is up before going back to hit another ball. But be sure you invite those following behind you to play through.

2003 #2 Should You Hit a Provisional Ball

THE SCENE:

On hole #5 you hit a tee shot over the water. You watch as the ball lands on the bank beside the green and then rolls back down towards you. But you lose sight of it before it reaches the water. You don’t know whether it is in the hazard or not.

What would you do?
A. Drive up to the hole, get out of your golf cart and walk over to your ball. If it is in the water, drive or walk back to the other side of the water hazard and drop a ball there?
B. To save time, hit a provisional ball from the tee?

The correct answer is A. 

You can’t hit a provisional ball for a ball that may be in a water hazard.

Look in your Rules of Golf book under DEFINITIONS. Find Provisional Ball. It says:
Provisional Ball: 
A “provisional ball’’ is a ball played under Rule 27-2 for a ball which may be lost outside a water hazard or may be out of bounds.

Notice that the definition says OUTSIDE a water hazard. This means that if you hit a second ball from the tee, even if you call it a provisional ball it won’t be one. The ball you hit could not be a provisional ball because the reason you hit it was because you thought your ball might be IN a water hazard.

Suppose you hit a 2nd ball. What is it?
 
If it is not a provisional ball, what is it? It is your ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance. In other words, you now lie three. And your original ball is deemed to be lost.

If you arrive at the green and discover that your first ball is playable, can you abandon your second ball and play the first one? No. That ball (your first ball) is no longer your ball in play. In fact if you hit it you would be hitting a wrong ball and would incur a two stroke penalty!

REMEMBER: If you think your ball might be in a water hazard, check it out before hitting another ball