Dear Linda,
Teeing off on the 18th hole one of my fellow
competitors (male) and I both hit our drives over the side of a cliff. As it’s
often difficult to find your ball there I hit a provisional ball from the tee. My
fellow competitor did not. When I arrived at the spot where both of our balls
had last been sighted, my fellow competitor hit a ball back up onto the fairway
and proceeded with playing the hole. As I was unable to locate my original ball
I played my provisional. My provisional ball was located past the point where
the original ball had disappeared.
When we arrived on the green I noticed that my fellow
competitor was using my original ball. I pointed this out to the group. What
should happen now? Can I go back to where my original ball was hit in error by
my fellow competitor (on the side of the cliff) and continue from there? I was
told that as I had played my provisional ball past the point of where the
original ball was that I had effectively declared my original ball lost. I
didn’t think it was fair that I should be disadvantaged due to someone else’s
mistake. But I accepted the ruling that by continuing the hole playing my
provisional ball my original ball was deemed “lost.” I am very keen to hear
your thoughts on this. By the way, my fellow
competitor was disqualified.
Lulu from Werribee, Australia
Dear Lulu,
The ruling you received was correct. Once you hit your
provisional ball from a point nearer the hole than where your original was
likely to be, your original was “lost” [Rule 27-2b].
This was a very unfortunate series of events for both
players. I cannot emphasize enough that a player should always take care to
identify his ball before he hits it, especially in a situation where two balls
were hit out of sight into the same area. On your way to the cliff, a useful
conversation might have included the following: “Jake, if we find the balls,
let’s be sure to identify them before we hit them.” “Good idea, Lulu. Wouldn’t
want to get hit with a wrong ball penalty.”
If you had found your fellow competitor’s ball after he hit
yours and within five minutes of beginning the search for your own, you could
have placed a ball on the spot where he hit yours and continued play with no
penalty [Decision 27/6].
The disqualification of your fellow
competitor could have been avoided. Since the error was discovered on the green, he should have
returned to the cliff area and searched for his ball. If he found it, he could
play it, adding a two-stroke penalty to his score for playing a wrong ball
[Rule 15-3b]. If he did not find it, he would have to return to the tee, adding
a third penalty stroke to his score [Rule 27-1]. Apparently he failed to state that he would correct his error before leaving the green, which resulted in his disqualification [Rule 15-3b].
Linda
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