What Is a Provisional Ball, and When Should You Play One?

A provisional ball saves the long walk back when a shot might be lost or out of bounds - but only if you announce it properly first.

A junior hits a tee shot that disappears into scrub near the boundary fence. It might be findable. It might be out of bounds. If they walk up, search, and fail to find it, the rules require them to return to the tee and play again - a five-minute round trip that holds up everybody behind them.

The provisional ball exists to prevent exactly that.

What a provisional ball is

A provisional ball is a second ball played from the same spot, before going forward to search, in case the original turns out to be lost outside a penalty area or out of bounds. It is insurance. If the original is found and playable, the provisional is simply abandoned at no cost.

You must announce it

This is the part juniors get wrong. To play a provisional you must announce it - out loud, to someone in the group - before hitting, and you must use the word 'provisional' or otherwise make it clear that is what you are doing.

Saying 'I'll hit another one' is not an announcement of a provisional. Under the rules, a second ball played without that announcement becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance, and the original is dead even if you then find it sitting in the middle of the fairway.

When it applies, and when it does not

• Use it when the ball may be lost outside a penalty area, or may be out of bounds
• Do not use it when you know the ball went into a penalty area - there are specific relief options for that instead
• You cannot play a provisional once you have gone forward to search and started looking for the original

What happens next

Walk forward and search. Three minutes is the search time allowed under the rules, timed from when the player or their caddie begins looking - not from when the shot was hit.

• Original found in bounds and playable within that time: play it, and pick the provisional up
• Original not found, or found out of bounds: the provisional becomes the ball in play under penalty of stroke and distance
• The provisional also becomes the ball in play as soon as you play it from a spot nearer the hole than where the original is believed to be

Why this matters for juniors specifically

Beginners lose more balls than experienced players, which makes provisional balls more relevant to them and not less. A junior who understands provisionals will hold up the course far less, and slow play is the single most common complaint about juniors in club competitions.

Pace of play is worth addressing directly with a young golfer - see understanding slow play for junior golfers.

The other side of this coin is knowing your relief options when a ball is in a penalty area or out of bounds - see penalty areas and out of bounds explained.

And for the mechanics of taking relief correctly, see what is a legal drop in golf.