==================================================== Newsletter - Issue 27 Date 07/07/07 ==================================================== ==================================================== Golf Tip: Ball Drop ==================================================== If anyone has a golf question that they would like answered, please email your question to: teachingpro@bataviacc.com and I'll do my best to answer it in an upcoming newsletter. Joe C. emailed this question: Lets say you are playing with friends for a small amount per hole and you can not find your ball after it appears to have landed in bounds. It is not practical to go back and hit again without disrupting the play of others in your group and behind you. What do you do, where can you drop a ball and what is the penalty. Thanks for the question Joe, this happens a lot - wager or not. The best thing to do is to have that player hit a provisional ball if there's any chance at all that it may have gone out of bounds or that it might be lost. If it appears to have landed in bounds, you probably didn't have the player hit a provisional ball; but if you can't find it it's a lost ball and it's treated the same as if it's a ball hit out of bounds, which is a one stroke penalty and loss of yardage. This means returning to the place where the player last hit the shot, dropping, and hitting again with a one stroke penalty. If it's a relatively friendly match with friends, and if the stakes aren't too high, the group often agrees ahead of time that in this situation the player can drop a ball where it was estimated to be and play from there, but the normal penalties would apply. This means that the player now lies three instead of one, and is hitting his/her fourth shot, not the second. If you decide that this sounds reasonable, just make sure that it's understood before the match begins. If the wager is significant, going back to the previous spot and hitting another ball should be the only option, even if it does disrupt play. There are a exceptions when your ball is lost and you get free relief without penalty, such as when you play golf in the fall and it's lost in a pile of leaves, or in the event that you are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that your ball was lost in abnormal ground conditions and not anywhere else.