One of the major guiding principles behind the game of golf is that you put your ball in play at the start of the hole, play your own ball and do not touch it until you lift it from the hole. Rule 1-1 covers this principle.
either find your ball or, if you can’t find it, put another ball into play under the appropriate rule or you will be disqualified. There is a loss-of-hole
penalty in match play and a two-stroke penalty in stroke play for playing a wrong ball, but the strokes made at the wrong ball and any pen- alties directly related to the playing of the wrong ball do not count in your score. Let’s say, in stroke play,
you have played a wrong ball with your second stroke from the rough and the ball
flies into a green-side bun- ker. While in the bunker, you move a loose impedi- ment in the bunker, which is a two-stroke penalty for violation of 13-4. You play from the bunker onto the green. When you mark and lift your ball on the green, you then realize that you had played a wrong ball on your second shot. You must return to where you played your second stroke, and, if you find your ball, continue playing with it. You incur a two-stroke penalty, but the strokes and penalty strokes
Use a tee or some other object to mark your ball position for identification in a hazard in order to avoid a potential penalty.
Playing a ball outside of the white out-of-bounds stakes constitutes a “wrong ball” situation, regardless if the ball appears to be playable.
O
f course, there are many exceptions that permit
you to substitute a new ball when it is impossible or impractical to proceed with your original ball. However, if you play a stroke at a golf ball that isn’t your ball in play, you have played a wrong ball. If you hole out with that ball, you haven’t made a proper score. Rule 15-3 gives you direction on
how to correct the mistake of playing a wrong ball. Playing a wrong ball
is one of the situations in the Rules of Golf that requires you to correct your mistake. The error must be corrected before playing from the next tee or, in the case of the last hole of the round, before you leave the putting green. Therefore, you must go back and