True or False?

1. You hook your tee shot to the left and toward an out of bounds stake. You are not sure whether the ball went out of bounds or stopped in the tall grass short of the out of bounds line. You say to the other players in your group: “I’m going to re-load.” You then hit a second ball from the teeing area. The second ball is now the ball in play, and you are lying three.

2. You chunk your tee shot about 25 yards into an area of tall grass. You search for your ball for one minute when another player suggests to you that you should return to the teeing area and play a provisional ball because the original ball might be lost. You return to the teeing area and announce and play a provisional ball. You resume your search for the original ball and find it within two and one-half minutes of when you first started searching for it. Because you played the provisional ball after beginning to search for your original ball, the provisional ball is now the ball in play.

3. You hit your tee shot toward a penalty area. The penalty area is surrounded by a 20-foot strip of tall fescue grass that is outside the penalty area. Being unsure whether the ball came to rest in the penalty area or in the tall grass, you announce and play a provisional ball. You are allowed to play a provisional ball in this situation.

4. You hit your tee shot toward a penalty area. The penalty area is surrounded by 6-inch rough which is outside the penalty area. When you reach the spot where you estimate your tee shot came to rest you search for 3 minutes, and you cannot find your ball. It is equally as likely that the ball is lost in the 6-inch rough as in the penalty area. You are required to play again from the teeing area where you will be making your third stroke.

5. You hit your tee shot toward a penalty area. The penalty area is surrounded by tall fescue grass which is outside the penalty area. You play a provisional because your ball may be lost outside the penalty area in the tall grass. When you reach the spot where you estimate your tee shot came to rest you search for one minute and see that your original ball is lying inside the penalty area. Because you correctly played a provisional ball, you have the option of playing the original ball as it lies in the penalty area or playing the provisional ball as it lies with a one-stroke penalty.

6. On a par-3 you hit your tee shot to the left and into an area of tall grass about 30 feet from the green, where the ball might be lost. After announcing that you will play a provisional ball, you chunk the provisional ball about 10 feet. You then hit the provisional ball onto the putting green. As you walk up toward the green, you find your original ball in the tall grass 30 feet from the green. Because you played the provisional ball more than once, it lost its status as a provisional ball and became the ball in play.

7. You hit a poor tee shot to the right into any area of thick rough and tall trees. Thinking your ball might be lost outside a penalty area, you announce and play a provisional ball, which you crush straight down the middle. Happy with your provisional ball, you announce that you do not want to find your original ball. As you are walking towards your provisional ball a spectator yells out that they just found a ball of the same brand and with similar identification markings as your ball. Even though the ball found by the spectator is likely to be your ball, you may proceed to play the provisional ball.