Your Match Committee were recently asked for clarification around a lost ball situation. Four
members were playing when one hit his drive into the bush. After spending some time
looking for the ball the member concerned told his playing partners to go ahead and play
their second shots while he continued to look for his ball. The three players moved ahead to
prepare to play their second shots. The member then called out that he had found his ball.
He hit his second shot from the bush and moved on to join his playing partners. The
question put to the committee was, “Is the player allowed to do this having told his playing
partners to go on ahead.”
The answer is ‘yes’, provided the ball was found within three minutes of the player
concerned arriving where the ball was believed to have come to rest in the bush. However if
three minutes have elapsed the ball is lost (Rule 18.2a) and despite finding it the player
cannot continue to play that ball (Rule 18.3c provides clarity on what happens when the ball
is found after three minutes).
Hopefully they will have played a provisional ball which can now be their ball in play. If they
did not play a provisional ball then they can either take a stroke and distance penalty,
returning to the tee to play their third shot, or in the case of a stableford or par round they
may elect to ‘wipe’ the hole.
To assist with this process the MiScore app that the majority of us are using for scoring
provides a handy three–minute countdown for you to use. Simply tap the box showing the
time into your round on top left of the screen. This automatically starts a three–minute
countdown. Tap the countdown box to return to the elapsed time for your round.
Kind Regards
Match Committee
