Lost Balls and OB in Jeju Golf: Check First Whether Local Rule E-5 Applies

R&A Rule 18.2a(1) treats a ball as lost if it is not found within three minutes after the player or their caddie begins to search for it. Under Rule 18.2b, if a ball is lost or out of bounds, the player must take stroke-and-distance relief by adding one penalty stroke and playing the original ball or another ball from where the previous stroke was made.

Under Rule 18.1, this stroke-and-distance relief can be taken at any time. If you already know your options for the moment when it looks as if a ball may not be found, it is easier to explain them to your group and decide on your next shot.

Rule 18.3a allows a player whose ball might be lost outside a penalty area or might be out of bounds to provisionally play another ball under penalty of stroke and distance. Under Rule 18.3b, before making a stroke at that ball, the player must announce to someone that they are going to play a provisional ball.

Simply saying that you are playing another ball or playing again is not enough. You must use the term “provisional ball” or otherwise make it clear that you are playing the ball provisionally. Under Rule 18.3c(2), there are two cases in which the provisional ball becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance: when the original ball is lost anywhere on the course other than in a penalty area or is out of bounds, and when the provisional ball is played from a spot nearer the hole than where the original ball is estimated to be. In the second case the original ball is no longer in play even if it is found on the course before the end of the three-minute search time, and it is a wrong ball that must not be played. Conversely, if the provisional ball has not yet become the ball in play and the original ball is found on the course outside a penalty area within three minutes, the provisional ball must be abandoned. There is also an exception. If the original ball has not been found but it is known or virtually certain that it was moved by an outside influence, came to rest in or on a movable obstruction or an abnormal course condition, or was deliberately deflected or stopped by someone, the player may either substitute another ball as that Rule allows or treat the provisional ball as the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance.

R&A Model Local Rule E-5 is an alternative to stroke-and-distance relief when a ball is lost or out of bounds. It is described as suited to general play, where golfers are playing casual rounds or their own competitions, and as not appropriate for competitions limited to highly skilled players (for example, professional or elite amateur competitions).

When this Local Rule is in effect, the player may take a two-stroke penalty and play from a relief area defined by two reference points. The ball reference point is the point where the original ball is estimated to have come to rest on the course, or to have last crossed the edge of the course boundary on its way out of bounds. The fairway reference point is the point on the fairway of the hole being played that is nearest to the ball reference point but not nearer the hole than it.

The relief area is anywhere between two lines from the hole, one through each reference point. It also takes in the area within two club-lengths outside the line through the ball reference point, and within two club-lengths to the fairway side of the line through the fairway reference point. The relief area must be in the general area and must not be nearer the hole than the ball reference point.

This option cannot be used when it is known or virtually certain that the original ball came to rest in a penalty area, or when another ball has already been played provisionally. Once this relief has been taken, the original ball is no longer in play, even if it is found on the course within three minutes.

Before the round starts, make a short list of what to check.

• Is Local Rule E-5 in effect for today’s round or the competition you are entering?
• If E-5 is not in effect, have you decided in advance whether to hit a provisional ball?
• Does your group know that E-5 cannot be used once a provisional ball has been played?
• Have you decided who will note the time the search for a ball begins?

If you are playing in a club tournament or another separately run competition, read both the advance notice and the on-site announcements, and confirm with the organizers which Local Rules apply. This article summarizes the R&A Rules of Golf; it does not mean that any particular Jeju golf course applies E-5. Check whether it applies at each course you visit and in each competition you enter, and share what you are told with your group so that no one is working from different rules on the course.