Linda,
This is a question that came up last week. I was playing in a club event and we were playing from the back tees on a downhill par 3 over a waste area that is marked by yellow stakes. I hit my tee shot and it was fading right and looked like it didn't make the other side of the hazard but it was close.
Our club uses a drop area near the forward tees for balls in the hazard so I hit my third shot from the drop area onto the green to speed up play. Being a holiday it was a busy day. I go looking for my first tee shot and find it just outside the margin of the hazard in some heavy rough. I play the original ball and abandon the other ball on the green. I go on to make a 6.
1: Was dropping a ball and playing from the drop area correct?
2: Do I have to play the original ball?
3: Did I break a rule by playing from the drop area when I thought my first ball was in fact in the hazard? Although it turns out I was incorrect.
4: I'm pretty sure the second ball isn't a provisional in this case because the original wasn't thought to be lost or OB but thought to be in a hazard.
Thanks,
Lou
Dear Lou,
If you are virtually certain that your ball is in the hazard, and your fellow competitors concur, then you may play a ball from the drop area. This ball becomes the ball in play. If you subsequently find your original ball, put it in your pocket. You may not play your original ball [Decision 26-1/3.5].
If you are not virtually certain that your ball is in the hazard, you must play another ball from the tee. If you announce that this second tee shot will be a provisional ball, when you find your original you must abandon the provisional and continue with the original. If you do not call the second tee shot a provisional, it becomes your ball in play under stroke and distance [Rule 27-1]. It is your third stroke on the hole. Your original is officially “lost,” even though you later find it.
Linda
Copyright © 2011 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
