Golf Rules Blog

We're playing a long par 4 today and all four players saw one player's ball splash in the greenside bunker. When we arrived at the bunker, no ball to be found. Looked everywhere, nothing. What is the proper way to proceed?
We guessed that it was "lost ball" and go from there. Just didn't know if there was any additional considerations since we were fairly sure that it should have been in the bunker.
And...Another question...
On a par 3, player hits the ball over and to the side of the green into the bushes but not in a hazard. Ball can be plainly seen once we got closer, but it makes for a difficult play. Obviously the choice is to play it or take an unplayable. However, my question is…if the player, while on the tee, thought it would be a lousy lie, could she have abandoned that ball immediately and played again from the tee before going to find out where the first ball was? This would have been a better result than either playing Ball 1 where it was or taking an unplayable.
One of my friends just presented me with this situation:
So I hit a ball into a lateral water hazard. I attempted to hit the ball out of the hazard. The ball went about 10 yards without clearing the hazard and landed in the hazard near a sprinkler head. Do I get relief from the sprinkler? What are my options?
Submit Your Rules Question
Have you had something happen on a golf course and you did not know how to apply the rules? Submit your question and Les Duer may answer it in a future column.


