Took the rules question of the day on the USGA website (yeah, I'm a USGA junkie, I freely admit it). The topic was the searching for a probable lost ball. Say you tee off on #4 and yank one into the tall grass. I know I've done it. As the junk grows higher later in the season, you know that it's almost hopeless that searching for the ball will be successful in that crap, and the odds of finding a tick on you are much better than finding your ball. You reach into your bag, sadly say "Provisional!" and play your next ball right into the center of the fairway. You don't want a tick, you don't want to even try to play your first ball, so you stride up the fairway waiting to hit your fourth shot into the green.
One of your fellow competitors strolls up the left side thinking that he knows about where your ball went in the junk and lo and behold, finds a ball. "What were you playing?" he asks... Are you required to go identify the ball if you think it's possible that it may be your ball? If you go over and look at it, can you say it's not yours even if it is?
The answer is that yes, you must go over and identify the ball if it's possible that it could be your ball. Remember, you've claimed that the second ball that you've hit is a "Provisional Ball". By playing a provisional, you accept that if the original ball is found in play the provisional becomes null and void. If the ball truly is the first ball that you struck, you can't lie and say it isn't your ball. Honesty and integrity should be hallmarks of our game, lying to get out of a bad situation would be just about the most egregious thing you could do on a golf course in my opinion.
So, your first ball is found. You're now laying one in a very undesirable position. What are your options? You can always play the ball as it lies, but for the price of one stroke, you can declare that ball unplayable. You then have 3 options (drop within 2 club lengths no closer to the hole, draw a line between the ball and the flagstick a drop on that line going as far back as you wish, or play from where your ball was last struck (in this case, the tee box). Since your provisional is null and void by virtue of finding the original ball, you'll have to go back to the tee box and hit again if you exercise that option.
But, you say, all of this would be a moot point if you'd simply asked your fellow competitor not to look for your ball. Is it ethical to ask that question, and as a fellow competitor in a stroke-play competition (remember we use stroke-play rules), doesn't he have an obligation to protect the other players in the competition by at least looking for the original ball?
First of all, there's nothing in the rule book that states you must help your fellow competitor find his ball. In general, if I know where my own ball is and I can be a help to a search, I'll participate. But, if I'm uncertain about my own ball, I'll work on my own situation to keep play moving. If someone said "don't bother to look in that patch of nasty thistle, I'll just play my provisional", I'd probably be more than happy to move on. He's already received a penalty stroke for a lost ball, and that's probably payment enough.
Since we play ready golf under stroke-play rules, there is another way out of the situation - if you would have hit a shot with the provisional closer to the hole than the search location, the original ball is then lost, and even if it's found after the provisional has been struck again, it's not the ball in play. The other way out of the problem is to declare the original ball unplayable right after you hit it into the tall grass, and then hit another ball off the tee (it would no longer be a "Provisional" ball - it's simply the ball in play).
...and you're saying. Fine and dandy, T-mo. Fine hypotheticals. But none of this stuff really happens does it? Take you back a few years - got this from leaderboard.com....
"Can you decline to look for your original ball? Perhaps you know it landed in a scrubbed barranca and if it's found you'll be forced to hit from the tee again. Yes you can decline to look for the full five minutes. However, if your opponent (or even a spectator who favors your opponent) wishes to look for your ball, you have no choice but to wait the allotted five minutes. If they find your ball, you are stuck playing it.
This is precisely what occurred in the 2001 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California as Phil Mickelson and Frank Lickliter both sent wayward tee shots into a canyon during their sudden death playoff. Each player then struck a provisional drive and both provisionals landed on the fairway. Lickliter's original ball was quickly located and that forced him to pick up his provisional ball. It also forced him back to the teeing area to hit another drive. (because his original was unplayable) Mickelson's provisional ball was already in the fairway, looking pretty nice. Phil remained atop the canyon, declining to hunt for his original ball. Microphones overheard him asking the PGA Official to prevent spectators from searching for the ball. No action to deter the spectators was taken. Sure enough, a ball was indeed found by a spectator and the marks confirmed it as Mickelson's ball, much to his chagrin. Why? Because it forced Phil to return to the teeing area to drive again (because HIS ball was unplayable) even though his provisional ball was safe and sound on the fairway. In fact, his next drive did fade to the left, towards the canyon. But it struck a tree and rebounded into the rough. He recovered and came within 25 feet of the pin with his next shot. But Lickliter's approach came twice as close. Unfortunately, Lickliter three-putted from there, allowing the left-handed Mickelson to win with a double-bogey!"