A provisional ball is another ball played when your original ball might be out of bounds or lost outside of a penalty area, intended to save you the time it would take to go back to the previous spot if you are required to proceed under stroke and distance. If you have to continue with the provisional ball, it becomes your ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance.

When You Can Play a Provisional

You are allowed to play a provisional ball anytime your ball might be lost outside a penalty area or might be out of bounds. So this means you can play a provisional:

• When your original ball went toward the boundary and might be out of bounds,
• When your original ball went somewhere on the course outside a penalty area where you don’t think you will find it, or
• When your original ball might have gone into a penalty area, but it also might be somewhere you cannot find it outside the penalty area.

This means that if the only place your ball could have gone is into a penalty area, you are not allowed to play a provisional ball.

How to Play a Provisional Ball

• Announce It. While there is not one specific required statement, you do have to announce to any person that you are playing a provisional ball before making a stroke at it. To avoid any confusion, you should use the word “provisional” or something else that makes it very clear you are playing a provisional ball and not putting a new ball into play under stroke and distance.
• You Should Play It Before Going Forward to Search. This is not a requirement of the Rules, but you don’t really save any time if you go all the way to where your original may be, search a little, and then go back. You do have to play the provisional before the three-minute search time ends (a ball put into play at the previous spot after the search time has expired becomes your ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance – even if announced as a provisional).
• Put the Ball into Play Properly. A provisional ball is played using the procedures for stroke and distance. So, if your previous spot is in the general area, penalty area or a bunker you will drop a ball into a relief area. If your previous spot was the teeing area, you can tee and play a ball from anywhere within the teeing area. If your previous spot was on the putting green, send us a story of how your original ball ended up possibly lost or out of bounds!