Golf Forums - Ruling help

Hi all, can someone gives some clarity to the following scenario and its appropriate ruling.

First drive is pulled, goes 270yards, longer than your normal hit off the tee and heads in the direction of a copse of trees with a lone large ultra-thick prickly thorn bush in the middle. It’s into a low sun and you’re unsure that you’ve even reached this copse but you declare a provisional and this goes sweetly down the middle at 250yards.

Upon reaching the area of your first ball you see that it is neither lost or out of bounds but it nestled right in the middle of this large prickly thorn bush. You immediately determine that relief of two club lengths no nearer the hole from where the ball lays is not an option for you as it would still leave the ball in this thicket without  any swing at all. The second option of dropping it and going as far back as you like behind where the ball came to rest in this thicket, keeping that spot between you and the hole provides another albeit a very difficult one.

So that’s the position you find yourself in and where my understanding of what you can legally do is a little blurred.

Your ball isn’t lost or out of bounds and although you have options one may look only slightly favourable to you to recover from and maintain at best a bogey opportunity. Can you simply deem it completely unplayable and play the provisional with a one stroke penalty even though your first ball has options to you no matter how difficult one or both may be? It seems to me that you hit the ball into the first unsavoury spot and it’s neither lost or out of bounds and so you have to deal with it from where it is.

 Hi,   this is my understanding,  as you  found the first ball it is in play, your prov ball can not be  used  , you can take a line from the hole back to your ball, then you can drop on this line going back as far as you wish,  or  as always  you can play from were you hit the ball from,  but this has to be a new shot, you cant use your prov ball,  because that is ok,  but when you hit your ball again it could go out of bounds , or in water etc etc,  ,  which is why you have to go back to play the shot again,    so i would say ifthere is room behind the bush this would be best,   this is my understanding  see you in december   roger

 Thanks Roger. Though I've just read that at anytime you can declare your ball unplayable. In theory you can declare a booming 300 yard middle of the fairway drive unplayable if you so wish, drop a ball in the nearest point to it then you'd be playing three. You could even declare it unplayable on the green and six inches from the hole, place a ball next to it and take your penalty shot if you so wished. That's where the confusion lays for me. So in the above example, even though you have one of the options open to you to play it you can still declare unplayable and put the provisional into play. Or have I got this wrong?

 yes it is correct you can always  declare a ball unplayable and then take a drop with penalty,   but you cannot use a prov  ball you may have played,  because, when you find the first ball that is the ball in play, you can then declare the ball unplayable, take a drop, or go back to the tee and play from there,  but you cant us the prov ball because it is not in play, as soon as the first ball is found it is in play, the reason for this is because if you hit a good prov ball,  you would be taking an unfair advanage,   as  if you went back to play 3 off the tee ,  you could play a bad shot, maybe ob,  then you would have to play 5 off the tee,  and so on, that is why when you find your 1st ball even if it is in a bush,  it is in play, and your prov ball cannot be used, i talk with the pro at vila sol  today and he comfirmed  this rule,  hope this is  clear,( as mud )    roger

 Many thanks Roger for comprehensively explaining the rule, I've always known it to be this way but have recently found a golf website which is at odds with this. Its from a website www.golfsidekick.com/knowledge/basic -rules-of-golf    In it I found the following paragraph which confounded me and so prompted me to post my querry..

 I believe you and Roger to be correct and the article you refer to is wrong. It goes without saying that if the original ball is found but is out of bounds you play the provisional.

 I think i know why you have a problem,  its the new rules that allow  you to speed up play,  but these rules  cannot be used in comps, therefore they are not the true rules of golf,  i never use these new rules, i play every game using only the full rules,  what you talk about  are uesd by some  golfs to keep the game moving,  and if you re only playing a fun games, then maybe its ok,  but they are not the rules that the pros play by or any club comp,  roger

 Cheers Roger 👍

Hi Martin, what you have been told by others is correct.