Provisional “drop” /Search time for lost ball.

[Kerry]

Situation: I drove the ball down the right side of a tree lined fairway. I did “not” hit a provisional ball from the tee box as rough is light & balls normally easy to find. The right side trees & rough are internal to the golf course (no OB) as there is an adjacent parallel fairway further right. My opponents thought I may have hit the trees, I felt I cleared the trees & was further down, closer to the green. After less than 2 minutes searching for my ball my opponents thought I should invoke the new rule and drop (2 stroke penalty) on the near fairway perpendicular to their perceived point of entry & within 2 club lengths of that. 

Question #1 - before taking the drop, may I declare the penalty drop & subsequent stroke as “provisional”?

… after driving down the cart path I found my original ball further down (as I expected).

Question #2 - after playing the “provisional” ball does the “search time” for my original ball reset to 3 minutes or is there 1 minute+ search time left?

Question #3 - May I now play my original tee shot (hitting two) without any penalty?

Thanks kindly for any assistance on this ruling.

[DaveP043]

1.  No, if you play under Model Local Rule E-5, it cannot be used as a provisional is used.  If you put a ball in play under E-5, that is your ball in play.

2.  See Answer to #1, your original ball is no longer permitted to be played, so there's no time limit applicable.

3. No, the ball you put into play under E-5 is your ball in play.  Your original ball is now a Wrong Ball.  This situation is exactly the same as if you hit a second shot from the tee without declaring it as a provisional, or if the 3-minute clock had actually expired.  That first ball may not be played.

18 minutes ago, Kerry said:

opponents thought I should invoke the new rule

This is NOT a new Rule, it is merely a Model Local Rule that can be put into effect by the Committee.

[Colin L]

Just to add some information regarding the different situation where a player goes  back to play a provisional  ball from where he played his previous stroke after a search had started,  the timing  continues and the provisional ball Is the ball in play when the 3 minutes expires.  If that provisional, now the ball in play, has to be searched for, it's a new search with the 3 minute limit. 

[DaveP043]

5 hours ago, Colin L said:

Just to add some information regarding the different situation where a player goes  back to play a provisional  ball from where he played his previous stroke after a search had started,  the timing  continues and the provisional ball Is the ball in play when the 3 minutes expires.  If that provisional, now the ball in play, has to be searched for, it's a new search with the 3 minute limit. 

Agree completely, this is made clear in Interpretation 18.3a/2.  There are a few situations where the search clock is temporarily stopped, but walking back to hit a provisional after the search has started is not one of those.

[Kerry]

Very informative. Thank you gentlemen. Clears up a lot. Appreciate it.