Managing Distractions

[sui generis]

Player plays a new yellow ball marked by him with a red dot next to the number on both sides of the ball into a penalty area. Upon arrival sees a shiny new yellow ball perched precariously atop the long grass in a place where he just might be able to get a club on it and advance it toward the hole. He knows that R9.4 says he must be careful and not cause the ball to move.

Still, with some trepidation he cautiously takes his stance and gives it a whack. Yeah! Some 50 yards up the fairway he gets to the ball and discovers it's not his ball . . . no red dots. He goes back and not finding the red dot ball, correctly takes R17 relief from the penalty area and completes the hole while adding an additional 2 penalty strokes for the R6.3c crime of playing a "wrong ball."

Happens to us all, hopefully infrequently but it still happens. The point of this sad tale is the player failed to manage the surrounding distractions. He was so intent on not causing the ball to move and figuring out how he was going to execute a useful shot that he forgot the basics . . . none of that matters if it's not your ball! All the excuses in the world don't matter. Yes, the found ball was the same color and make and model and was in the spot where his original ball should have been. Why me? I know better!

[DavePelz4]

Could the player not have marked the spot of the ball, picked it up to identify it and then if it is the player's ball, replace it as it was originally and gone from there?

[Sawgrass]

 

7.4 Ball Accidentally Moved in Trying to Find or Identify ItThere is no penalty if the player’s ball is accidentally moved by the player, opponent or anyone else while trying to find or identify it.

 

So, yes. But this requires sight/foresight that the tense, distracted player may not be able to muster.

 

I, like Sui, am a careful, rules-abiding player who still vividly and cruelly remembers-well having hit a wrong ball. I still hate myself for it, though that’s clearly stupid.

Sui, I’m afraid there’s no hope for us.

[rogolf]

I've found that playing a wrong ball gives about 7 years of immunity from doing it again!

[Mikey5e]

Maybe the red dots washed off in the water?

[antip]

Oh crap! My 7 years are just about up again. It was the third hole at Goulburn Golf Club in their Open Thursday comp..... the nightmares haven't been gone long.

Perhaps I'll go play a social 9 and do it there, to rebuild that immunity.....

[rjp1969]

Did just that three weeks ago. Playing with a fellow rules follower (both of us know each others' marks), who 90% of the time outdrives me. Both of us drive and there are two Titleists in the fairway, one about 15 yards ahead of the other. I step up and hit my ball, and then he asks if I checked my ball before I hit it. D'oh! There was no doubt in my mind that the shorter ball would have been mine so I never even gave it a look.

Apologies, he replaces and hits tot he green, I go to my real ball and put it within ten feet. Sink the putt for a (Grrrr!) 5. Next hole, I get a birdie for what would have been only my third back to back birdies. I still count it as back to back birdies, even though it went on the card as a 5 and a 3.

[sui generis]

On the brightside, rjp, we're "immune" until 2027. ?