One commonly held opinion about lost balls might be the greatest myth in the Rules of Golf

Haven’t we all done it? Hit a horrible shot into the wilderness only to be followed up by our ‘shot of the day’ with a provisional ball.

We have all heard players declare their ball lost, as they are smitten with how well they played their provisional ball and don’t want to bother finding and being forced to play their original ball.

This may be the greatest myth within the Rules of Golf. Unfortunately, you cannot declare your ball lost. In fact, there is nothing you can say to make your ball lost.

A ball is lost if it is not found within three minutes after the player or their caddie begins to search for it. Interestingly, a player is permitted to instruct their caddie not to begin searching for their ball until the player gets there.

If your original ball lies on the course, and you have no interest in searching for it, you have three options. You either begin a search, which starts the three-minute timer running, or walk away and wait for those three minutes of search time to expire (in this case, your ball becomes lost). You can also move quickly to your provisional ball and make a stroke at it from a spot that is nearer to the hole than where the original ball is estimated to be. This action takes your original ball out of play and makes the provisional ball the ball in play, under penalty of stroke and distance. Or if you haven’t played a provisional ball, you can proceed under stroke and distance, which is to play another ball from where the previous stroke was made.

If a ball is found within the three minutes of search time, however it is uncertain whether it is your ball or not, you must promptly attempt to identify the ball.

Knowing how good your provisional ball is, you may still not want to identify and play your original ball. The game’s ruling bodies are strict on this situation. Refusing to identify a found ball that might be yours is an example of an action that is likely to be considered serious misconduct, and therefore grounds for disqualification by the committee.

Even though you are allowed three minutes to search for your ball before it becomes lost, there are situations when the search time is paused and does not count towards your three minutes, including moving away to allow the following group to play through and when play is suspended.

Assuming you still don’t want to find your original ball, what doesn’t help is that you may have little control over other players and next to no control over spectators, etc. Short of tackling them to the ground, there is little you can do to stop people searching for your ball if they choose to. Think of your opponent in matchplay who sees your provisional ball at tap-in distance yet knows your original ball will be in a difficult spot.

Even if you prefer to continue play of the hole with a provisional ball without searching for the original – and make that very clear to everyone else – your opponent or other players in strokeplay do not have to abide by your request. Pace of play permitting, they may search for your original ball and if it is found and is still in play, you must abandon the provisional ball.

Asking people not to search – and them obliging – would be relatively easy playing in regular Stableford competitions at your club. 

Stuart McPhee is a referee for the PGA Tour of Australasia and co-host of the No.1 podcast in the world dedicated solely to discussing the Rules of Golf: The Golf Rules Questions Podcast.

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