[jenilopaz]

Your 2nd ball, without the declaration of it being a provisional, is not a ball in play under the Rules. Technically, it would not count as a stroke at all and you'd either have to walk back to the tee and declare that you were hitting a provisional ball under stroke and distance (your 3rd stroke) or take a 2 stroke penalty and drop a ball in play near where you thought your original ball was (lying 3, hitting 4).

This is so wrong.

I do not believe this is correct. I think that if you do not declare the second ball as provisional that it (the second ball) IS the ball in play and all other options are off the table.

This is correct. If you hit a second ball and do not call a provisional, you've possibly screwed yourself 2 strokes.

You guys are obviously correct, and here's a link to back it up.

http://handicaptracker.golf.com/golf...p?topicID=1680


Topic: LPGA British Open Player rules lapse
Posted by gsollars July 31, 2011

Once again, we have a professional golfer that does not take the time to know and understand the rules. At the Women's British Open yesterday Angela Stanford hit a ball that was very close to the OB fence left of the 18th green. The marshall, in error, indicated that her ball was OB. She proceeded to play a provisional ball without telling her playing partner that she was hitting a provisional until she had verified for herself, as she is required to do since she is ultimately responsible for abiding by the rules, that the ball was indeed OB or still in bounds. Once she hit that second ball, not having declared it as a provisional, that ball now became the "ball in play," and the first ball became irrelevant.

When she arrived at her ball, the ball was indeed inbounds but since her second ball was now her "ball in play," all she could do was pick it up and toss it to a fan. It continues to amaze me that players that expect to make their living playing golf, do not take the time to read and understand the rules. It's not as if this incident was complicated or unusual, all she had to so was appreciate that until she saw the ball for herself, nothing had been decided. She is the one that is supposed to delare it OB or lost. She should have known better.