Lost ball, out of bounds and the provisional.

This page summarises Rule 18 of the 2023 Rules of Golf, in effect from 1 January 2023. The R&A says the next edition is due on 1 January 2028.

When a ball is lost

Under Rule 18.2a, a ball is lost if it is not found within three minutes after you or your caddie start searching for it. If a ball is found inside the three minutes, you are allowed a reasonable extra moment to identify it. The search time was cut from five minutes to three in the 2019 modernisation, as the USGA's summary of the 2019 changes records.

When a ball is out of bounds

The Committee sets the course boundaries, and everything outside them is out of bounds (Rule 2.1). Rule 18.2a says a ball at rest is out of bounds only when all of it is outside the boundary edge. You may stand out of bounds to play a ball that is still on the course.

What you must do: stroke and distance

Rule 18.2b says that for a lost ball or a ball out of bounds you must take stroke-and-distance relief: add one penalty stroke and play again from where you made the previous stroke. Rule 18.1 also lets you take stroke-and-distance relief at any time.

There are exceptions. If it is known or virtually certain that the ball is in a penalty area, in an abnormal course condition, or was moved by an outside influence, the Rules for those situations apply instead. A ball not found but known or virtually certain to be in a penalty area is handled under Rule 17.

Once you put another ball in play under stroke and distance, the original ball is out of play, even if it then turns up within the three minutes (Rule 18.1).

The provisional ball

Rule 18.3a lets you play a provisional ball when your ball might be lost outside a penalty area or might be out of bounds, to save time. The provisional is played under stroke and distance, so if it comes into play it carries the one-stroke penalty.

• Announce it (Rule 18.3b). Before the stroke you must say you are playing a provisional, using the word "provisional" or otherwise making it clear. Saying you are hitting "another ball" is not enough, and a ball played without a clear announcement becomes the ball in play.
• When it becomes the ball in play (Rule 18.3c). The provisional takes over if the original is lost outside a penalty area or is out of bounds, or if you play the provisional from a spot nearer the hole than where the original is estimated to be.
• When you abandon it (Rule 18.3c). If you find the original on the course, outside a penalty area, within the three minutes, you must stop playing the provisional, and any strokes made with it do not count.

Telling your ball apart from another player's matters here. The Equipment Rules note that Rule 6.3a encourages players to put an identification mark on their ball.

Model Local Rule E-5: an alternative a Committee may adopt

Model Local Rule E-5 gives an extra option for a ball that is lost or out of bounds when no provisional was played. It applies only when the Committee has adopted it, and the Virginia State Golf Association describes it as optional. Without that Local Rule, Rule 18.2b applies as written.

The details below come from a club-hosted copy of the Committee Procedures text for E-5. That copy does not print an edition date, so check the current Committee Procedures before relying on the detail.

• Who it is for: general play and players' own competitions. The copy says it is not appropriate for competitions limited to highly skilled players, meaning professional and elite amateur events.
• The penalty: two strokes. The copy explains that this makes the result comparable to what stroke and distance would have produced.
• Where you drop: in a large area between two reference points, not nearer the hole. The ball reference point is where the ball is estimated to have come to rest, or last crossed the boundary. The fairway reference point is the nearest point of the fairway of the hole being played that is not nearer the hole. The area extends two club-lengths outside each line from the hole and must be in the general area. "Fairway" means any grass in the general area cut to fairway height or less.
• When you cannot use it: for an unplayable ball, for a ball known or virtually certain to be in a penalty area, or for the original ball when you have played a provisional. It may be used for a provisional that is itself lost or out of bounds.
• Scope: a Committee may apply it to the whole course or just to one or two holes, for example where players cannot see the landing area.
• Handicaps: the copy leaves the question of submitting such scores for handicap purposes to the handicap system in the local jurisdiction. See handicaps.

Our research did not confirm from a primary page the year E-5 was introduced.

Internal out of bounds

Model Local Rule A-4 deals with internal out of bounds. The R&A says it was amended for 2026 so that a Committee may apply internal out of bounds only to strokes from the teeing area, or to all strokes on the hole. Like every Model Local Rule, it applies only when the Committee adopts it.