RULE OF THE WEEK.
Question.
A player searches for his ball for a total of five minutes and does not find it. On the way back to the tee he finds the original ball and plays it. There is no penalty.
A TRUE
B FALSE
Decision 27/8 Ball Found After Search Exceeding Five Minutes Is Then Played
A player searches for his ball for five minutes and does not find it. He continues to search, finds his ball and plays it. What is the ruling?
• The ball was lost and therefore out of play when the five minute period allowed for search expired – see Definitions of “Ball in Play” and “Lost Ball”.
• When the player played a stroke with the ball out of play, he played a wrong ball – see Definition of “Wrong Ball” – and incurred a penalty of loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play – Rule 15-3.
• In stroke play, he was disqualified if he did not correct the error by proceeding under Rule27-1 before playing from the next tee – Rule 15-3b.
