What to do if...
... my ball is suspected of being out of bounds?
If you suspect that your ball may have come to rest out of bounds (beyond the white OOB markers) you are advised to play another ball, however before you strike your new ball you must declare it as a provisional ball, failure to declare your ball as provisional will result in your second ball being deemed as in play and your first ball as lost.
Once you have played your provisional ball you may look for your first ball for a maximum period of 5 minutes, if you find your ball has not gone out of bounds you must play it in accordance with the rules of golf. However if you find that your original ball has come to rest out of bounds then your second ball is in play and you have suffered a one stroke penalty.
When playing a provisional ball, you may play it until it crosses the point at which you suspect your original ball has gone out of bounds before looking for your original ball, this is to save the time of walking backwards and forwards from one ball to another. If a stroke is played at the provisional ball from a point closer to the hole than where his original ball is suspected of being then the provisional ball is deemed to be in play and the original ball is deemed to be lost.
Every so often we all come across a situation on the golf course where we simply do not know what to do, usually the players will discuss it and come to some agreement as to how to resolve the situation. However if the method you use does not comply with the rules of golf then your card should be disqualified.
The correct thing to do would be to play two balls for the rest of the hole, and clear up the matter with the committee upon completion of the round.
If you have come across such a situation and you would like a definitive answer we would like to know about it, not only because it is only fair that you report such incidents but because we would like to document them here to let all members know how to deal with such occurrences.
Do you have a rules question you would like answering? Put it in writing to "The Secretary" at Shirland Golf Club or email shirlandgolfclub@btinternet.com and you may see your rules query on this page
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