1. Facts

After a weak drive on the Par 4 9th Hole at BMCC, Foremost yanks a long second shot squarely into the middle of a magnolia (?) tree short left of the green. He begins a search for his ball, a search joined by his partner, RM, and veteran opponents,JB and RC. The tree, also, serves to protect the teeing area of the upper practice range. A handful of balls were in the general search area which F examined only to determine they were practice balls. No luck.

After a cursory look into the tree, JB and RC quickly broke off the search. F was about to abandon his search as well, although he had seen a couple of balls all the way across the fairway which he wanted to check in case he had missed a ricochet. The two balls were in a direct line to the pin, one 50 yards away, and the other about 30 yards away.

At this time JB was already going through his shot routine on the ball farther away. F could only watch as JB inspected his ball, measured the distance, selected a club, and played his shot, as F didn’t want to enter JB’s line of play to complete his search while JB was playing. JB hit his shot, and F headed directly to the other ball.

RM got to the remaining ball first. “Yeah, this is your ball”, he said. You are playing a Srixon, aren’t you?”

“Yep”, said F.

F looked to confirm the identity of his ball and found that this ball, also a Srixon, had a “M” country club logo, whereas F marks his ball with a distinguished, yet handsome and discreet “F”. JB said “Uh-Oh…that’s my ball. I must have played yours.”

F advised JB that he was D’Qd on the hole for playing the wrong ball.

F noted to all that he had been prepared to abandon his search under the 3-minute Rule upon checking the two balls across the fairway. JB advised F that he should indeed be penalized as his search had clearly exceeded the 3-minute time limitation. His partner, BC, joined this argument noting that the following group which they had not seen all day had appeared on the 9th tee.

Issue

Under the circumstances, should F have declared his ball “lost”?

Ruling

F was certainly cognizant of the three -minute search rule, and in his own mind had not exceeded this limitation in his search around the tree. Obviously, his opponents felt otherwise as to the tree search, unless they were including and counting against F the time JB spent in playing F’s ball. Neither party had pulled out a cell phone to actually time the search.

Nevertheless, F and his partner, RM, had spotted the two balls lying across the fairway before the three minutes lapsed (again, in F’s opinion), and was prevented from a prompt attempt to identify the balls by JB’s play.

Under R18.2a a ball is “lost” if not found by the player within 3 minutes after he begins a search. However, if a ball is “found” within the time limitation, but cannot be promptly identified, the player has “a reasonable time to do so” if the player is not where the ball is found, even if the identification happens after the 3 minutes has expired.

F finds that a lost ball declaration was not warranted for several reasons: 1) no player pulled his cell phone and put a stop-watch on the tree search (perhaps a lesson here) ; 2) F was prohibited from identifying a ball he had found by his consideration for opponent’s play, thus tolling the clock; and 3) his opponent had wrongly identified and actually played the ball F was looking for, perhaps before the 3-minute search period had even expired.

Note that the penalty for playing a “Wrong Ball” (the General Penalty, loss of hole, R6.3) applies only to the player and not his partner in Match Play. Playing a Wrong Ball is never treated as having helped a partner or hurt an opponent’s play, whether the wrong ball belongs to the opponent, a partner, or anyone else. (R28a2; See, Exception).

II. Facts

We now find ourselves on the 15th Hole green in the same competition. JB and BC are one-up. BC narrowly misses an 8-foot down-hill putt for his par. RM has a short bogey putt. F has a side-hill three-footer remaining for a par to win the hole.

With his partner’s miss, JB, who was himself out of the hole, gathers his clubs and begins to walk off the green. “They’re good ,boys”, he says. “Pick ‘em up”.

“Oh no they aren’t”, says his partner, BC, very quickly in response.

“It matters”, F’s partner, RM, adds solemnly, referencing his partner’s remaining putt.

JB returns to green and watches the proceedings with a renewed interest.

F had failed to rake away his ball. A mistake? He tries to regroup mentally. He carefully studies his putt. He stalks it from every angle…like a Sandwich, or a Patrick Cantlay. He then reaches down and picks up his ball.

“Guys, this Match is All-Square”, says F.

Issue

What happened?

Ruling

“A concession is final and cannot be declined or withdrawn”. (Int., R3.2b1(2)).

As usual, all comments or corrections are welcome!

Respectfully submitted,
F