The rules don’t force you to put identifying marks on your golf ball. That’s not stopped a starter or two trying to tell me otherwise, but the moral is your dicing with death if you don’t.
I recently had to penalise myself two shots after I played my playing partner’s ball in a medal. Yes, even I mess up the rules.
I thought the printed lines on my Titleist AVX were distinctive enough. My bad for being an idiot.
But playing the wrong ball can bring up all kinds of possibilities. Just check out this email scenario which arose from a club championship.
“A player plays his shot and the ball disappears towards the rough. He declares that he is playing a provisional ball and plays his shot.
“A ball is found in the rough (Titleist 2, which he was playing), he plays his shot out of the rough but realises that this wasn’t his ball.
“As the three minutes are now up, the original ball is deemed to be lost so he goes and plays his provisional ball.
“Is this correct or is the provisional ball now out of play as he has made a stroke at a wrong ball?
We gave him a two-shot penalty for playing a stroke at a wrong ball but the question was raised as to whether he should be disqualified for continuing with the provisional ball.”
So what is it? Two shots, an early bath, or none of the above? Let’s get stuck in…
Hitting the wrong ball in golf: What’s the answer to this rules conundrum?
This is quite a web that’s been woven. Let’s see if we can untangle it. It is a two-shot penalty for playing the wrong ball.
When you play a wrong ball, Rule 6.3c says in stroke play you have to correct that mistake “by continuing play with the original ball by playing it as it lies or taking relief under the Rules”.
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Even if our player had gone on to play numerous strokes with that wrong ball, none of them would have counted. Fix the mistake or be disqualified after teeing off at the next hole.
Let’s carry on. Our emailer says “the three minutes are now up”. But were they?
There are occasions when the time for a search is “temporarily interrupted”. Just check out this example in a Clarification to Rule 18.2a.
“A player searches for their ball for one minute and finds a ball. The player assumes that ball is their ball, takes 30 seconds to decide how to make the stroke, chooses a club and plays that ball. The player then discovers that it is a wrong ball.
“When the player returns to the area where the original ball was likely to be and resumes the search, they have two more minutes to search. The time of search stopped when the player found the wrong ball and stopped searching.”
Well, well, well. Our hero might have had more time to try and find his ball. He may want to utilise that given what could otherwise happen.
Let’s assume the three-minute search time has expired. The original ball is lost so the provisional is now the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance. That penalty is separate to the sanction for the wrong ball.
Now let’s do some maths. It’s one off the tee, two strokes for hitting a wrong ball, one shot for taking stroke-and-distance relief, and that provisional – now in play – didn’t come free. If I’ve managed to work this out correctly, this player is now taking his sixth shot. Ouch.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
What do you think about these hitting the wrong ball in golf rules? Let me you what you think, and send me your own rules questions, by emailing me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com or by leaving us a comment on X.
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