Penalty Relief Situations

Ball Lost or Out of Bounds

Stroke and Distance Rule

• You must use Stroke and Distance Relief if your ball is lost or Out of Bounds (OB).

Lost Ball:

• You have 3 minutes to find your ball once you or your caddie start looking.

• You can choose to play your Provisional Ball if you don’t want to spend time searching. Importantly, you can ask others not to look for your original ball, but they don’t have to stop looking. If your first ball is found by someone wihtin the 3 minutes (this can be anyone, including your playing partner, a rules official or a spectator), you may have to play the original, depending on the rules and where the original is located (e.g. if it is not OB then you have to play it or take relief as need be, but you cannot play your provisional ball). 

Out of Bounds (OB):

• A ball is OB if all of it is outside the course boundary (marked by white lines or stakes).
• If any part of the ball touches inside the boundary, it is still in-bounds.
• You can stand outside the boundary to play a ball that is still in-bounds.

Stroke and Distance Relief

• A player can always take Stroke and Distance Relief by going back to where they hit their last shot.

• This means you add 1 penalty stroke and replay from the previous spot.
• You can do this anywhere on the course, even if a rule says you should take relief in a specific way.

Playing a Provisional Ball

• If your ball might be lost or out of bounds, you can play a Provisional Ball to save time. 
• If you do end up playing your Provisional Ball (i.e. you do not find your original ball or it is OB) it will cost 1 penalty stroke.
• If the first Provisional Ball might also be lost or out of bounds, you can play another Provisional Ball, but that costs another penalty stroke.

How to do it right:

1. You must announce: “I am playing a Provisional Ball.” Just saying “I’m playing again” is not enough.
2. If nobody is nearby to hear you, play the Provisional Ball, then tell someone as soon as possible.
3. You can play the Provisional Ball up to where you think the original ball is but not beyond that - for example, if your provisional ball is clearly shorter than your original ball, you can play a second shot with the provisional ball on the way to the estimated location of your first tee shot. If you find your original ball then none of the shots with the provisional ball are counted.

When the Provisional Ball Becomes the Ball in Play

• If the original ball is lost after 3 minutes of searching, the Provisional Ball is now the ball in play.
• If the Provisional Ball is accidentally played closer to the hole than the original ball’s estimated spot, it becomes the ball in play.
• If the original ball is found in time, you must stop using the Provisional Ball and play the original ball.
• If the original ball is in a Penalty Area, you must abandon the Provisional Ball and play the original ball as it lies or take penalty relief.

Unplayable Balls

Only you can decide whether to treat your ball as Unplayable. You can decide to take unplayable relief anywhere on the course except in a Penalty Area.

If your ball is Unplayable you can do one of 3 things, all are a 1 Stroke Penalty: 

1. Play the ball (or a different ball) from the place of the last stroke (stroke and distance relief).
2. Back on the line relief – you can drop the ball (or a different ball) on the line from the hole through where the original ball landed as far back as you like.
3. Lateral relief – the ball can be dropped within 2 club lengths of where the ball sits, no closer to the pin.