Golf and Golf Courses

golf in Albuquerque

One of the worst things that can happen on the golf course is, while the round can take up to 5 hours, you are just standing there the whole day and you watch the group up in front of you, all day, and you just get to stand around and wait.

So the provisional ball rule was developed by the people who write the rules of golf. The provisional ball is supposed to help speed up play.

Beginners think the provisional ball is a “do-over”or a “mulligan”. A provisional ball is not a mulligan or do-over. The provisional ball is legal and within the rules of golf. It will help to keep the pace of play better when it is used correctly.

You should play a provisional ball if you fear your shot ended up out of bounds or was lost outside a hazard. You never hit a provisional ball if you believe your ball is lost inside a hazard or a lateral hazard.

It works this way: Now if there is doubt that your ball can be found or is even in bounds, you make the announcement “provisional ball”, and hit. One of the rules is you have to say out loud “provisional ball” to your playing partners, or it does not count. You can’t just get back up and say “I’ll just hit another one” or “I’ll hit it again”.

You then can play strokes on the provisional ball up to the point where you believe your original ball to be. At that point, you commence the search for the original ball and, if it’s not found within five minutes, the provisional ball becomes the ball in play.

This saves you time and the embarrassment or walking or driving backwards on a hole.

The scoring goes this way: Count all the strokes on the original ball that you lost. Then take your penalty.  Now count all the shots you took on the provisional ball.So, if your tee shot was the one that went OB, you’d count that stroke, plus a penalty stroke, plus the stroke on the provisional. You’d be laying three and hitting four.

So, you play your provisional ball, and you head on up the fairway and you find out that the original ball is still in bounds, what do you do now?

It is really very simple, it is like the provisional ball was never played. All you have to do is to pick up the ball and play the original ball.  Any shots that you took on the provisional ball don’t count.

So, say you boom a monster fade 280 yards OB right then, upset and out of your rhythm, you top your provisional four or five times until you reach the area of the original ball. I can tell you what a feeling it is to get there and see your ball is still in bounds. Now as far as scoring goes, all of those topped shots you took on the provisional ball don’t count, they never happened and what a feeling that is.  You just got back into your rhythm.

Learning about the provisional ball rule is important. This rule comes into play where ever you are playing and that includes when you golf New Mexico style.  If you are thinking of doing this, then you want to get yourself some discounted tee times and that would include if you are thinking of golf in Albuquerque, so just visit the site to learn more.

Tags: discounted tee times, golf in new mexico, golf new mexico, golfing in new mexico