How the Provisional Ball Rule Actually Works
Golfing in New Mexico and speeding up play
One of the worst things that can happen on the golf course is, while the round can take up to 5 hours, you are just standing there the whole day and you watch the group up in front of you, all day, and you just get to stand around and wait.
So the provisional ball rule was developed by the people who write the rules of golf. The provisional ball is supposed to help speed up play.
New golfers tend to equate a provisional ball with a “mulligan,” or a “do-over.” A provisional ball is different, completely legal and within the rules and a vital part of keeping the pace of play from bogging down.
You should play a provisional ball if you fear your shot ended up out of bounds or was lost outside a hazard.
It works this way: Now if there is doubt that your ball can be found or is even in bounds, you make the announcement “provisional ball”, and hit. One of the rules is you have to say out loud “provisional ball” to your playing partners, or it does not count. You can’t just get back up and say “I’ll just hit another one” or “I’ll hit it again”.
Now you can hit shots on that provisional ball up to the point where you think you lost the original ball. At that point, you commence the search for the original ball and, if it’s not found within five minutes, the provisional ball becomes the ball in play.
You are now going to save time. You will also not have to walk back or drive back to where you hit the shot on the ball that you lost. So that provisional ball saves time and embarrassment.
You would score like this: Count all the strokes on the original ball that you lost. Then take your penalty. Now count all the shots you took on the provisional ball.So, if your tee shot was the one that went OB, you’d count that stroke, plus a penalty stroke, plus the stroke on the provisional. You’d be laying three and hitting four.
So, you play your provisional ball, and you head on up the fairway and you find out that the original ball is still in bounds, what do you do now?
In that case, it’s like the provisional ball never existed. Just go and pick up your provisional ball. Any shots that you played on the provisional ball you don’t need to count. Now all you have to do is just continue to play the original ball.
So, say you boom a monster fade 280 yards OB right then, upset and out of your rhythm, you top your provisional four or five times until you reach the area of the original ball. This is great, you get up to where you bombed that tee shot and you happen to see your ball is still in bounds. Wow, how good does that feel? For scoring this is how it goes. All of those shots that you took on the provisional ball don’t count. That’s right those shots never happened because you declared that ball as a provisional ball. What a great feeling.
Speeding up play is a concern everywhere, not only when you are golfing in New Mexico. But if you love to golf then you must click the link and learn more about golf in New Mexico.
