# Provisional Ball



## Parmike (Oct 22, 2013)

Player A drives his tee shot to the right of the fairway into some rough which he beleives kan be found, but to be sure he plays a provisional ball and declares this to player B his opponent. the provisional ball (player A) lands in the middle of teh fairway. Player B hits his tees hot in to th emiddle of the fairway. Both players go forward towards their ball but when Player realises that his ball is in an area where if he finds his ball it woulb be impossible to hit it. Player A declares that he does not want to play the original ball, he prefers to play the provisional ball, but player B ignores this and finds A`s ball within 3 minutes. the question is, can palyer B look for A´s ball after A said he did not want to play it??


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

Welcome to the forum.

Yes. Player A's original ball is in play until something occurs to change its status. The ways that the provisional ball becomes the ball in play are:

1) The player plays a stroke with the provisional ball from a spot at or closer to the hole than the point where the original ball is thought to be.

2) The original ball is found out of bounds.

3) The original ball is not found, or is found after searching for 5 minutes.

In those 3 cases, the provisional ball becomes the ball in play. If the original ball is found in bounds before any of those statements is true, then the player must abandon the provisional ball and proceed with the original.


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## Parmike (Oct 22, 2013)

Thanks for the reply, its is just as I thought.


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