What happens if you lose your golf ball?

The situation

You hit your shot into the rough, trees, or long grass. You search for three minutes and can't find it. The ball is lost.

The rule

Under Rule 18.2, a lost ball means stroke-and-distance relief: add 1 penalty stroke to your score and play again from the spot where your previous stroke was made. There is no option to drop near where the ball was lost — you go all the way back. The only way to avoid the full stroke-and-distance walk of shame is to have played a provisional ball before you went forward to look.

Real example

Your tee shot disappears into trees on the right. You search for three minutes and find nothing. You must go back to the tee, add 1 stroke, and hit your third shot. If you'd hit a provisional from the tee, you'd be playing your third shot from the fairway instead.

What to do on the course

• If you didn't play a provisional: go back to where you played the lost shot, add 1 penalty stroke, play from there
• If you played a provisional: continue with the provisional ball (it's now in play) with the stroke-and-distance penalty already applied
• If you're far from the original spot and don't want to walk back, you may play a second ball in stroke play under a local rule if the committee offers the "stroke and distance from a drop zone" option — check the scorecard

Penalty

1-stroke penalty + replay from the original spot (stroke-and-distance).