Playing the Wrong Ball

The USGA rule for playing a wrong ball is a 2-stroke penalty, and you must go back and "correct the mistake." 

If you don't correct the mistake before playing another hole or turning in your scorecard (if it happens on the final hole), then you are disqualified. (It's just loss of hole in Match Play)

A Complicated Example:

• Geoff tees off on a par 4, and hits his Nitro Crossfire #1 ball near OB.
• Geoff hits a provisional down the middle of the fairway.
• He looks for his ball, and within 3 minutes finds an identical ball to his in-bounds, somewhat in a bush but playable.
• Geoff punches that ball into the fairway, laying 2. He picks up his provisional ball.
• He then goes to what he thinks is his ball in the fairway to play his approach, but now notices that the ball - despite being a Nitro Crossfire #1 - it has a stamp on it that says "Lanky Louie."
• Geoff realizes that he is not "Lanky Louie," and that he played the wrong ball.
• Geoff has to go back to where he thinks he lost his ball, which is now deemed OB. He would then be required to play stroke-and-distance... he technically already did this with the provisional... but unfortunately he picked up the provisional!

I'm sure we would tell him to re-drop the provisional about where he picked it up. He'd be laying 5, hitting 6:  1- OB, 2- on the tee, 3- provisional to fairway, 4&5 - two stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball.

In the real world, he'd probably get another 2 strokes for picking up the provisional after he played the wrong ball, even though he was unaware of his mistake!

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All this to say Tall Mike was given a 2-stroke penalty yesterday for playing the wrong ball that was in the same area as his ball. The group was fine with it... they just didn't know how many strokes to give him.

Some of us have been yelling about this for years... but you people should be marking your balls with sharpies. Take one from your personal Sharpie Sniffing Stash, and put it in your bag. They even sell cool stamps and stencils like this one.

Get creative, and never hit the wrong ball again!