The wrong ball rule in a nutshell: If you hit a wrong ball, you’ll pick up a two-shot penalty in stroke play or you’ll lose the hole in match play. In stroke play, you must correct the mistake by playing your original ball or taking penalty relief – most likely stroke-and-distance. If you don’t fix the mistake and begin another hole, you are disqualified.
Don’t scroll on by. If you’ve never fallen foul of the wrong ball rule before, you will at some point. Even the very best players in the world mess this one up from time to time.
Just like Adam Scott, who didn’t check the ball he was hitting in the rough during the first round of the recent PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship.
He played a second shot form the left rough at the par-5 8th only to discover he hadn’t hit his ball at all. So how do you proceed if this happens to you? Let’s take a deeper look at the wrong ball rule.
What is a wrong ball?
The definitions say a wrong ball is any ball other than the player’s…
- Ball in play (whether original or substituted)
- Provisional ball (before it’s abandoned when the original ball is found)
- Second ball in stroke play (if, for example, there is a question over a rules issue)
You can imagine what are examples of a wrong ball. They include another player’s ball in play, a stray ball, and a ball that’s either out of bounds, is lost, or has been lifted and is yet to be put back into play.
What is the wrong ball rule?
Rule 6.3c says you “must not make a stroke at a wrong ball”. If you do this in match play, you will lose the hole. If you’ve both played the wrong ball – it does happen, for example you play each other’s – the first player to have done so loses the hole.
But the rule also says if you can’t figure that out then there is no penalty and you simply carry on the hole with the exchanged balls.
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If you play the wrong ball in stroke play, you’re immediately hit with a two-stroke penalty.
What happens if I’ve played a wrong ball?
You can’t just carry on in stroke play. You need to fix the mistake. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve hit the wrong ball, or even any penalties you’ve picked up with that ball, none of them count.
You must either carry on with your original ball or take “relief under the Rules”. So if you can’t find it, for example, the ball is lost and you’re going back to where you played the previous stroke under stroke-and-distance.
What if I don’t fix the mistake?
Bad things will happen. If you haven’t fixed the mistake and you tee off on another hole or, if it was the last hole of the round, you return your scorecard, you are disqualified. No ifs, no buts. Gone.
What if I know someone else has played my ball as a wrong ball?
Rule 6.3c (2) says if it is “known or virtually certain” that your ball was “played by another as a wrong ball”, you replace that ball – or another – on the original spot. You estimate that spot if you don’t know exactly where it was. This rule apples “whether or not the original ball has been found”.
Now have your say
Have you fallen foul of this rule? How did it happen and how did you fix it? And what do you think of the rule as it stands? Let me know in the comments, or drop me a line on X.
