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USGA Rules of Golf

 

It has come under some attention when playing in tournaments how to score when a ball is lost or out of bounds and there is a need to not slow the speed of play by going back to the spot from where the ball was originally struck. Here are the USGA rules for this:

 

27-1. Stroke and Distance; Ball Out of Bounds; Ball Not Found Within Five Minutes

a. Proceeding Under Stroke and Distance

At any time, a player may, under penalty of one stroke, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5), i.e., proceed under penalty of stroke and distance.

Except as otherwise provided in the Rules, if a player makes a stroke at a ball from the spot at which the original ball was last played, he is deemed to have proceeded under penalty of stroke and distance.

b. Ball Out of Bounds

If a ball is out of bounds, the player must play a ball, under penalty of one stroke, as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5).

c. Ball Not Found Within Five Minutes

If a ball is lost as a result of not being found or identified as his by the player within five minutes after the player's Side or his or their caddies have begun to search for it, the player must play a ball, under penalty of one stroke, as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5).

 

This rule means that the golfer MUST return to the spot where the original stroke was taken and add a penalty of one stroke to their score. Now the issue comes when for speed of play; it is selected NOT to return to the original spot and the player wants to drop a ball where the ball was last seen in play. This involves not taking the DISTANCE portion of the penalty, in doing this there must be an additional stroke added to the score for this infraction. The reason I state this is that an out of bounds or lost ball infraction CANNOT be penalized the same as a hazard penalty of one stroke and to play the ball from the point where the ball last crossed the hazard. If the golfer goes out of bounds and wants to drop where the ball last crossed the OB line then if they hit from that spot they are also incurring an additional penalty of hitting from the wrong place (Rule 20-7) which states:

 

20-7. Playing from Wrong Place

c. Stroke Play

If a competitor makes a stroke from a wrong place, he incurs a penalty of two strokes under the applicable Rule. He must play out the hole with the ball played from the wrong place, without correcting his error, provided he has not committed a serious breach (see Note 1).

This means that if the golfer drops the ball at the point where the ball was lost or went out of bounds they MUST incur a two stroke penalty because they did not return to where the ball was originally stuck (it is also not a free drop). In numeric concerns if a ball was hit off the tee and went out of bounds and to speed play the golfer dos not return to the tee box to hit 3 from the tee; instead they drop a ball where the ball last crossed the OB line and then add two strokes this means that they are dropping 4 and hitting 5 NOT dropping 3 hitting 4. Lying 2 hitting 3 would be the stokes if the ball went into a hazard (red or yellow staked) and was not found. Even this gives the golfer incurring the infraction an unfair advantage for it takes hitting the ball out of bounds again when re-teeing. The golfer should not be able to have the same strokes as someone who actually went back to the tee to hit 3; putting OB in play again.  In this case the golfer would be lying 3 hitting 4 and should not be rewarded for not hitting a provision ball! So in my opinion this is the only fair way to penalize this infraction.

Ralph James - 3/5/2010