Quote:
Originally Posted by OmegaG5  Interestingly, I was in a situation similar on Thursday in a seniors match (match play in pairs).
I duffed my tee shot off a par 3 into waist high grass 40 yards. I asked one of the locals we were playing with if that was going to be findable, and he said "No chance in there!". So I hit a provisional which was OK.
Now.... I looked, and found it. deep in the grass on a pile of stones. Unplayable. Took a drop, and frankly, it was still unplayable, so I picked up.
After the hole, my partner told me that I should have declared the first ball lost, and that a second ball off the tee declared to be "the ball in play" before it was hit, rather than call it a provisional.
Is that right?
R. |
I believe that you have the right to call a provisional ball if you are uncertain of the playability of the original ball - if there is any chance that a ball might not be lost. Just because the local said "no way" doesn't mean that your ball may not have come to rest in a bare patch of ground from which you could have played. So you were within the rules to call your second shot a provisional. And you don't have to look if you don't want to. Your opponent, however gets five minutes to look. Once the ball is found, and you declare it "unplayable", and not "lost", then you had to proceed as if the provisional stroke had never been made.
If you
hadn't looked for your ball, and instead played your next shot using the provisional ball, and if your provisional ball was closer to the hole than your opponent's, he could have made you replay the provisional ball, since at that point you had played out of turn.
That's the way I read the rule.