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Play a challenging par 3 late in a tight match. The nerves have settled, and your tee shot goes into the trees left of the green. Even if you find your ball, you quickly realize that your next shot will probably be hard, so you decide to play a provisional. But do you need to search for your original ball?
The answer is no. There is no requirement in the Rules that says you must search. You can continue with your provisional ball when it is your turn to play.
A wrinkle, however: Even if you decide not to remove your ball, if someone else finds one that could be yours, you are obliged to go and identify it. And if it’s yours, you should keep playing with that ball.
A few other things to note about ball searches:
-If you choose to search for your original ball, you have up to three minutes to locate it before it is officially “lost”.
-The three-minute search clock starts when you or your caddy start searching for your ball (in a partner format, your partner or their partner’s caddy can also start the search clock).
-If you are looking for a minute, find it in long rough, go to grab a club from your bag and then can not relocate your ball, you have two minutes of search time left to find it.
