This week’s topic was suggested by Joe McKeever who related a few jaw-dropping stories about the use of the provisional balls that caused me to crack open the rule book. Provisional. It’s a scary word. If you even have to mutter it, you know that the ball you just struck is probably either out of bounds or lost, and is the first topic of conversation for this week’s blog. Playing provisional balls in our league is encouraged, and it’s encouraged because in the end, hitting a provisional ball can save a lot of time. With a full course of foursomes, as we all know quite well, it takes roughly 2-and-a-half hours to play 9 holes, so any savings in time is appreciated by your playing partners and fellow competitors. Time is another reason we have been encouraged to allow “gimmies”, but I’m wandering from my subject. Provisional balls can ONLY ever be played in two cases – you feel that the ball you just struck is either 1) out of bounds or 2) lost. In both of these cases – the lost ball or the ball hit out of bounds, the penalty is exactly the same – it’s a stroke AND distance penalty (in other words, the only way to proceed with the hole is to go back to the location (distance) from where you made your last wayward stroke and hit it again with a one-stroke penalty. So, in these cases, if you had truly hit the ball out of bounds or if you lost the ball, you’d have to go back and hit again. The provisional ball takes the place of having to walk back. Hitting a ball into or toward a hazard is not an occasion to play a provisional – since being in a hazard creates a number of options (only one of which is a stroke and distance penalty) for the player once he identifies that the ball is indeed in the hazard. The same argument can be made for a ball you think is going to be deemed unplayable, you have multiple options in this case also, so hitting a provisional ball in that case is not the correct procedure. In order to play a provisional ball, before you strike it, you must announce your intention to your opponents, typically something like “I think that ball’s gone, I’d like to hit a provisional”, even though inside you’re saying something quite different with a lot of four-letter words. Also before you strike your provisional, you want to note the identification of the provisional ball and make sure it isn’t the same as the one you think is lost. I always keep a couple orphan balls (brands I don’t play very often) in my bag just in case I need to hit a provisional. Now when you hit a provisional ball, it’s been my experience that you typically nail the thing right down the fairway and don’t duplicate the stupidity of the first swing. However, there are a number of other options – one if which is that you can truly duplicate the stupidity of your first swing and end up with a ball out of bounds or one you fear is lost. Can you hit another provisional? Remember, the purpose of the provisional ball is to save time, so yes, you can hit an infinite number of provisionals, but you need to keep track of the number of strokes and the balls you’ve hit. Another option might be that you hit your provisional, but top the thing and it only goes 50 yards or so from the tee. You can still see the ball; it’s not out of bounds or lost, so you can’t hit another provisional. In this case, you now have a ball out there maybe 200 yards from you that you have to hunt for, and you have this ball 50 yards off the tee that you hit to save time. If you go and search for the ‘lost’ ball and don’t find it, you’d have to return to your ball 50 yards from the tee and you’d end up wasting more time. Fortunately, the rules of golf address this issue, and you can play the provisional ball up to the point where you need to search for the first lost ball. If the first ball is either not out of bounds or found, you reject all strokes made on the provisional ball, and the PROVISIONAL BALL IS NO LONGER AN OPTION FOR PLAY. However, if you play the provisional from a spot in front (closer to the green) of the search area, the provisional becomes the ball in play even if you find the first ball struck and you have to count the initial penalty for the lost ball plus all the strokes you made on the provisional ball. Now, as I said, you can play your provisional ball up to the search area for your lost or suspected-out-of-bounds ball. Once you reach the search area to look for your ball, the 5-minute clock starts for the lost ball. So, here’s a quiz. You hit a ball from the #4 tee into the junk to the left of the #4 fairway. Knowing there’s little chance you’ll find that ball, you state your intention to hit a provisional ball. All’s well and good because you think the ball may be LOST. You hammer your drive with a slight fade and the ball ends up 100 yards from the green in the middle of the fairway. When you go to look for your first ball, you find it nestled 6” deep in the tall stuff. You think to yourself that you could deem the found ball to be unplayable, in which case one of your options is to go back to the tee and hit again. But wait! I already did that with my provisional, so I should be able to use that fantastic shot that’s 100 yards from the green laying 3! Right? WRONG. Once you find the ball for which you hit the provisional, the provisional ball becomes null and void. If you did want to deem the ball you found unplayable and you did want to re-tee, you’d have to go back to the tee and play yet another ball. That seems unfair and a waste of time on first review. However, the option you selected for the unplayable ball was probably reached knowing the result – you were already in good shape. We’ll deal with the Unplayable Ball in some detail in a future blog entry. As we all know, the rules of golf can occasionally be difficult to interpret, and there can be disagreements that result on the course. In our league we do not have a rules official with each group – we’re our own guardians of the rules. So, what if there’s an argument out there on the course and two people are convinced that their interpretation of the rule is right and the other party is completely wrong? They could argue until the sun went down and no one would be able to complete their match because of the disagreement. Fortunately, the rules of golf allow both parties to have their voice heard at a point following conclusion of the match. In order to table the disagreement, the rules allow us to play two different balls in the event of a disagreement (or “Doubt as to Procedure” (Rule 3-3)). The second ball played is NOT considered a provisional since both scores will be recorded and both balls are in play. Here’s an example. Team 86’s A-player, Bob hooks his tee shot on #8 and the ball comes to rest right behind the fenced back stop near the old ladies tee for #9. The location of the backstop interferes with Bob’s swing. Team 93’s B-player, John believes that the backstop is considered part of the course, and Bob should not receive relief. Bob contends that the backstop is a immovable obstacle and that he does get relief for his stance and stroke, and he should be able to get a 1-clublength distance from his nearest point of relief, no closer to the hole. Since the players cannot reach an agreement on the rule, Bob can play two balls – one with no relief (per John’s contention) and another with relief (per Bob’s contention). Bob will record both scores, and both parties submit a note with his scorecard to the league handicapper who will determine if each score is correct according to the rules. Bob must also note which score he would like to have count if his contention is upheld. Now here’s the funny thing. What if Bob records a lower score with the ball that John had him play, and the ruling goes in Bob’s favor? Since Bob felt that he was entitled to relief (he was so entitled), and the ruling went in his favor, he has to accept the score with that ball, even if it resulted in a higher score.