LAWS OF GOLF

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20966, 19 February 1938, Page 6

LAWS OF GOLF

PITFALLS IN LOST BALL RULE THE PROVISIONAL SHOT Recent incidents in which two wellknown professional golfers were disqualified for a breach of the rules governing a lost ball and the playing of a provisional serve to illustrate the degree of ignorance on the part of players generally as to the meaning and purpose of the rules of golf, remarks a writer in the “Observer,” London. Either golfers do not bother to read the rules or having read them, misinterpret their intention and application. It is not so long ago that the rules were revised in order to make them more easily understood, and yet confusion and misunderstandings are as rife as ever. Though no means exist for checking the statement that no competition is won without a breach of the rules being committed—innocently, of course—it is not far removed from the truth.

A visit to any ordinary club on a medal day will reveal an extraordinary state of affairs. Things are done openly, and obviously in sublime ignorance, which would cause the disqualification of at least half of the competitors. Experience goes to show that more misconception exists over the lost ball and provisional ball rules than any other.

Since the disqualification of the two professionals I have taken the trouble to ask many average golfers, who play principally at the week-ends, what they would have done in similar circumstances. In five cases out of six the answer has been, “Precisely the same.” A 6 handicap player who has not been unsuccessful in club tournaments said quite frankly, “I always go back and play a provisional ball if the first is not found almost immediately. I leave the caddie to continue the search, and if he, or anybody else, finds it, I pick up the provisional ball and continue with the first. I do it to save time, and that is what the rule says.” Simple but Subtle It is on the question of “saving time” that most players go wrong. A provisional ball may only be played before the player goes In search of the first. Rule 22, which is quite explicit on this point, states:— “(2) If a ball has been played on to a part of the course where it is likely to be lost or unplayable, the player may, in order to save . delay, at once play another ball provisionally; but if the first ball be neither lost nor deemed unplayable, it shall continue in play without penalty. The player may continue to play with a provisional ball until he reaches the place where the previous ball is likely to be. “Note: A provisional ball may only be played under the second section of this rule before the player goes forward to search for the ball which has been played with the previous stroke.” A player cannot go back to play a provisional ball once he has searched for the first. Should he go back, he has ipso facto abandoned the first as lost, and it cannot be played even if found within the stipulated time-limit of five minutes. The second ball then becomes the ball in play and if in stroke competitions the player, does not hole with it he is automatically , disqualified, and in match play he loses the hole.

It will be seen that the penalty in stroke play is extremely severe. It is possible to imagine a player with the open championship virtually in his pocket playing the last hole and incurring the penalty of disqualification, because of going back to play a second ball which he regarded as ‘provisional,’ and subsequently holing out with the first. I repeat: Once the player has retraced his steps the first ball must be regarded as lost; the second ball then becomes the ball in play, and he must hole out with it. He loses stroke and distance; in other words, two shots.

Of a number of official decisions on this point two will suffice for the purpose of illustration. One concerns a woman player In a stroke competition at the Reigate Heath club. At a short hole she holed out her tee shot, but, as the hole was not in sight, the fact was not known. After searching for the ball and not finding it, she went back to the tee and played another, and only discovered that she had holed her first tee shot on holing the second ball. Bogey Botherdom In this case the point at issue was: “Should her score be one or five?” The decision of St. Andrews was: “The score with the second ball counts. When the player abandoned search for the first ball it became a ‘lost ball,’ and the second became the ball in play. The note to rule 22 makes It quite clear that a provisional ball can only be played before the player goes forward to search for the ball played with the previous stroke.” The second case concerns that of a player at the old South Lodge course at Mitcham. After playing his second shot to a certain hole the ball could not be found. He then went back and played a second ball, and as he was about to putt the first was found in the hole.

Without holing out, the player picked up the second ball and counted his score as two. He was disqualified for not holing out with the second ball, which was the one in play, the first having been given up as lost. Actually he did not return a score for the hole as he did not hole out with the proper ball.