While we're talking about provisional balls, wasn't there an episode with John Daly (I think) a couple of years ago where he hit a ball (maybe trying to reach a par4 green with his drive)
that he thought went into the water on the left , then he hit a provisional from the tee, but....I'm sketchy here....but because his first ball was neither out of bounds or in the hazard had to play his provisional? (i.e., hitting 4 instead of 2 for his next shot?)....is that putting a 2nd ball in play when your 1st is neither lost or in a hazard?
I don't think that makes sense....you play a provisional
because you think it might be lost....if you find the original, shouldn't you be able to play the original? Perhaps there were some circumstances in that example where John was forced to play his provisional? Maybe he made a stroke at the provisional, then they found the original not in the hazard? Forgot the details of that episode.
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27-2c. When Provisional Ball to Be Abandoned:
</B>
If the original ball is neither
lost nor
out of bounds, the player must abandon the
provisional ball and continue playing the original ball. If he makes any further
strokes at the
provisional ball, he is playing a
wrong ball and the provisions of Rule
15-3 apply.
Note: If a player plays a
provisional ball under Rule
27-2a, the
strokes made after this Rule has been invoked with a
provisional ball subsequently abandoned under Rule
27-2c and
penalty strokes incurred solely by playing that ball are disregarded.