[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

What happens when you hit a ball that you think is OB and you re-tee without a proclamation of intent?

You've abandoned that ball and are now playing this one. It's extremely straight forward.

Your competitors have no idea what you're doing, the rules officials have no idea what you're doing, and they proceed to go under their own assumptions. They go down range and find your "lost ball" in a world of hurt with the expectation you now have to play from that position, probably taking a bigger number. Do you get to claim you already hit a ball and you now lie three?

Yes. That's exactly what you get to claim. You took a stroke and distance penalty.

Or on the other side of that coin, you blast one into the trees and play a second ball that you hit really poorly, but you find you got a massive bounce on your first ball and it's in position A. Do you get to choose to ignore that second ball and claim provisional?

Did you clearly announce it as a provisional? Did you find it within three minutes? If yes, you get to ignore the second ball. If not, you've abandoned your first ball and hit your third off the tee and that is now the in play ball. If you try to play the first, you will run into the same situation the Q-school player did, just flipped (not announcing a provisional when you could have/should have and then playing the wrong ball, rather than announcing one where you can't and playing the wrong ball).

It is exactly why intent needs to be announced and why the article supports the practice. It is to prevent confusion and he-said-he-said arguments on the course and playing rounds under protest.

It's why intent should be announced. It doesn't need to be for anything other than a provisional.