Linda,
Yesterday during men's club stroke play a player hit a wrong
ball from the fairway and played that ball two more times until he realized it
was not his ball when he marked it on the green. He then went back and found
his ball and finished the hole with the correct ball!
They came to me for a ruling and I said add 2 strokes on to
the score.
I got thinking after that I might have given the wrong
ruling.
Since 5 minutes had passed and he couldn't claim a lost
ball, should he have gone back to the tee box hitting 3 or was my first ruling
correct?
What if he had holed out the wrong ball, or if he had teed
off before realizing the mistake? Would it make any difference on the ruling?
Lou from Wingham, Ontario, Canada
Dear Lou,
Your ruling was correct. Do not count any of the strokes
made with the wrong ball; add a two-stroke penalty to the score with the
correct ball [Rule 15-3b].
While more than five minutes passed while playing the wrong
ball, these were not the five minutes allotted to search for the original ball.
Judging from your narrative, it did not take the player more than five minutes
to find his ball when he returned to search for it. His original ball was not
“lost” under the Rules [Definition of “Lost Ball” section “a”].
It would make no difference if he holed out with the wrong
ball. However, if he teed off on the next hole without correcting his mistake,
he would be disqualified [Rule 15-3b].
Linda
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