We have all experienced that sinking sensation on the golf course when you hit a shot and watch on as it begins to sail offline towards the out of bounds or some impenetrable bushes.
You prey to the golfing gods that it might just have stopped and stayed in play but you can’t be sure.
What to do in that situation of uncertainty is to play a provisional ball. You must make it clear to your playing partners that you are doing so. If you can’t tell them immediately because they are not in earshot, you must tell them as soon as you are able to.
Your provisional ball will become the ball in play if your original ball is lost or out of bounds or if you play it from a spot that is nearer the hole than where the original ball was thought to be.
What do you do though if you hit a provisional ball and it heads into the same area the original did and you fear that it too could be lost or out of bounds?
Rule 18.3 tells you all you need to know about provisional balls and Rule 18.3a says that if a provisional ball may be out of bounds or lost outside a penalty area, you may play another provisional ball.
That second provisional ball would have the same relationship to the first provisional as the first provisional has to the original ball.
If you feared a drive was lost, then feared the provisional was lost, that second provisional, if it is then required, is effectively five off the tee.
What if you think the second provisional is also lost or out of bounds? Well, you can just keep on going. There is technically no limit to how many provisional balls you can hit.
If you genuinely believe that every ball you have hit could be either lost or OOB, then you can keep declaring provisional and hitting again.
But you would have to be a little careful. If you stood up on the tee and hit 15 shots declaring provisional each time, you would have to genuinely believe they could be in trouble, otherwise you could be in danger of breaching Rule 5.6 – Unreasonably delaying play.
If your playing partners felt that one or more of your so called “Provisionals” were actually ok and on the course, you could be unreasonably delaying play and would face a one stroke penalty.
Is there a limit to how many provisionals you can hit? Technically no. But you would probably be constrained by how many balls you have in your bag. And, if you’re potentially playing 27 off the tee having hit 13 provisional balls, it might be time to call it a day.
