Season 2 – Round 4 Quiz

1. You make a stroke from the teeing area that may be lost in a tall grassy area off the fairway, so you properly announce and play a provisional ball. You search for two minutes and find your ball in tall grass and walk away to get your clubs. When you return, you are unable to find your original ball and search again for another minute without finding it. Because the original ball is now lost you go over and play your provisional ball into the hole. Before starting the next hole another player in the group questions the situation and you both summon a referee. What is the ruling?

2. You hit your tee shot into the woods where you are unlikely to find it. You then play a provisional ball that also goes into the woods, prompting you to properly play yet another provisional ball that also goes into the same area. At this point you think you will find one of the balls, so you go forward to the area where all three balls are estimated to be. You find only two balls within the three-minute search time and you determine they are the provisional balls, but you cannot tell which was the first provisional or second provisional. What is the ruling?

3. You make a stroke from the putting green that must travel over a steep ridge to the hole cut just over a false front. While your ball is in motion, it is deflected by a small bee walking across the putting green. The ball doesn’t make it up the ridge and rolls back down the slope and into a bunker. Forgetting that Model Local Rule D-7 is in effect, you take another ball and place it on the spot of the previous stroke, believing the stroke did not count and that you had to play from the previous spot. You hole out in two putts and tee off on the next hole. What is the ruling?

4. In stroke play, you hit your tee shot into the rough. After searching for two-and-a-half minutes, you find a ball that you believe is yours. You return to your bag to retrieve a club and then play the ball, all of which takes an additional minute. You walk to the putting green and then learn that the ball you played was not yours. What is the ruling?

5. Your ball comes to rest on the putting green, and you mark it with a small coin. You walk away and after another player putts, you look for your coin but cannot find it. You search for three minutes but are unable to find the coin you had placed. Unsure what to do, you estimate where the ball had been lifted from and replace your ball and play into the hole. While walking away from the hole another player sees your ball-marker stuck to the bottom of your shoe. What is the ruling?

6. In stroke play, your tee shot looks to have finished just off the fairway in tall grass. Your caddie, who was already in the landing area when you played from the teeing area, arrives at the area and starts to search for your ball 30 seconds before you arrive. You look for the ball for one minute and then notice the following group has already arrived at the teeing area. You and your caddie step aside and wave to them to play through; you wait 90 seconds for them to play their tee shots and then resume search for your ball. After 50 more seconds you find a ball, and it takes you 10 more seconds to figure out the ball is not yours. After another 30 seconds you find a ball that you identify as yours within 10 more seconds. What is the ruling?

7. Your skulled tee shot on a par 3 may be lost in deep rough about 10 yards beyond the green, so you play a provisional ball that ends up on the green about 25 feet from the hole. As you leave the teeing area, you tell the other players in your group: “Don’t anyone look for that ball. I’m declaring it lost right now, so I lie 3 on the green with my provisional.” When you get to the green, you play the provisional to 1 foot from the hole. Then another player sees a ball in light rough just over the green about 30 feet from the hole, and it is your original ball. You pick up the provisional and complete the hole with the original, scoring 4. Another player questions your actions, and on the way to the next tee, you consult a referee. What is the correct ruling?

8. You hit your approach shot toward boundary stakes right of the green. As you and your group are some distance away, you see a man in the yard in the area where your ball might have ended up and you aren’t sure, but you think he might have tossed something towards the course. You get to the green and you find your ball near the boundary but clearly in bounds, and the man is nowhere to be found. You chip your ball onto the green and finish the hole. As your group is leaving the green the man reappears and tells you he found your ball in his yard and tossed it back on the course so you didn’t trample his yard. What should you do?

9. Your second stroke on a par 5 is headed well left, and left of a penalty area that borders the putting green. It lands in thick tall grass near the course boundary. Because you are not sure whether you will find the ball and, if you do, whether it will be in bounds, you properly announce and drop a provisional ball. After dropping but before playing that ball, a homeowner who was watching from off the course shouts to confirm your original ball has come to rest on the course and in the thick tall grass. Although you know your original ball has been found in bounds and, without going forward to assess the shot from where it was found, you don’t think you’ll be able to get it on the green from there so you choose to complete the hole with the dropped ball. After holing out, you tee off on the next hole and discuss the situation with a referee. What is the ruling?