Quote:
Originally Posted by JPsuff
No. He played the provisional ball and took his one-stroke "lost ball" penalty and played on.
But that's not the point anyway. The point is that, essentially, this poor slob got DQ'd because the cheese-eater that dimed him to the rules guy claimed that he didn't "announce" that he was hitting a provisional ball, which I personally think is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of.
-JP
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So what's the two stroke penalty for? Sorry for dissecting, but if he played the wrong ball and completed the hole out and teed off the next, then it's DQ anyway, regardless of whether he handed his card in already. If he played his second ball, then there's just the stroke and distance penalty and nothing else, since his second ball was the one in play if he didn't say provisional.
The not saying provisional thing happens alarmingly frequently. A Scottish pro (who I'll not name since I'm not 100% sure it was him) called someone out for doing it in the Dunhill Links at St Andrews, but the problem comes if you don't say provisional and then find your original ball. This instance was particularly harsh because the person in question was Korean and didn't speak a word of English, so didn't even know what the word provisional meant.
That said, I think the rule is a good one. Otherwise, it leaves you the choice of whether to play the original if you find it, which is not right. If you hit a ball in the woods and say provisional, then find your original ball you have to play it and your provisional ball ceases to mean anything at all. If you don't say provisional, then you can't play your original ball. This is the way things should be. Otherwise, you can not say provisional, then either play your original or say that you had no intention of playing the original and play the provisional. The ridiculous rule IMO is that they couldn't adjust his score, but rather had to disqualify him.
I'm not excusing the guy that ratted him out, but if the pro in question is at Q-school, he should really know the rules well enough to know that he should say provisional. The guy that ratted on him should have told him on the hole in question if he knew the guy played the wrong ball, but he does have a responsibility to the rest of the field to say something.
By the way, I'm only saying this because I'm genuinely curious about the situation and how it came about. I'm not just arguing for arguing's sake.