Rules every golfer should know Searching for and identifying your ball – various Rules

As we all get to grips with golf’s new Rules, there are three key things that have changed from January 1, 2019 when it comes to searching for and identifying your ball.

The first is pretty straightforward – a simple reduction in the time that you are allowed to search for a ball, from five minutes down to three minutes under Rule 18.2. If the ball is not found after three minutes of searching, the ball is lost and you must go back to play again under penalty of stroke and distance, or move on to the provisional ball you will hopefully have played as a prudent contingency.

This change is really a twopronged attack on pace of play due not only to the time reduction, but also the added encouragement it brings to play a provisional ball more often when there is any doubt as to whether or not a ball will be found. This will avoid the long walk back, which only ever serves to hold up play for those you are playing with and those following.

While searching for a ball, there will no longer be a penalty if you, the player, cause your own ball to move accidentally while searching for it (Rule 7.4). There had perhaps always been a bit of a disincentive in the past for players to search too earnestly for their own ball in case they moved it.

Although there will no longer be a penalty for such accidental movement, you must always replace the ball in its original spot or estimate that spot if the precise location is not known. This will ensure that the next shot you face is the one you would have faced had you not accidentally caused the ball to move.

Finally, we all know that person who gets to their ball, wants to confirm for sure that it’s theirs and simply picks it up to check before putting it back down.

Now, you no longer have to announce your intention to mark and lift your ball to identify it to another person, but you must still mark its position before lifting it. You must also not clean the ball more than is necessary to identify it and you must not lift it to identify it without good reason. So, if the ball lies in a position where it is perfectly possible to see your identification marks, then this Rule does not apply. Failure to follow the procedure for identifying your ball in Rule 7.3 results in one penalty stroke.

In a match, Fergus accidentally moves his ball while searching in the rough. He replaces it on its original spot by estimating where it lay. What is the ruling?