Rule 7: Finding Your Ball: Searching, Seeing and Identifying
What this is about
This rule gives you the freedom to search for your ball after a stroke. You'll learn how to find and identify your ball fairly. It's important that you don't cheat while doing this.
What you need to do
Once you've hit your ball, you're responsible for finding it yourself.
- You may carefully move branches, grass and sand aside. Search for the ball without improving your situation.
- If you find a ball but you're not sure it's yours, mark the spot first.
- You may then pick up the ball to check its identifying marks. Don't clean the ball, except on the putting green.
- Place the ball back exactly on the marked spot.
- If you accidentally move the ball while searching for or identifying it, don't worry, there's no penalty. Just replace the ball where it lay.
- Watch out: picking up the ball unnecessarily without marking it, or cleaning it more than allowed, costs you 1 penalty stroke.
Common mistake
A common mistake is searching too enthusiastically. Sometimes you accidentally push aside branches that would affect your stroke. That's not allowed. You may not improve the conditions around your ball.
Example
You hit your ball into thick bushes next to the fairway. You search carefully and bend some branches aside to get a better look. You find a ball but don't see your identifying mark. You place a tee down and pick up the ball to check it. It turns out to be your ball, so you place it back.
Practise this rule with real exam questions in the free app.
7.1 How to correctly search for your ball
7.1a A player may take reasonable actions to find and identify their ball
A player may take reasonable actions to find their ball, such as moving or bending grass, bushes, tree branches and similar natural growth, as well as sand and water. If the player improves their conditions through these reasonable actions, there's no penalty. But if the improvement results from actions that go beyond what's reasonable, the player gets the general penalty (Rule 8.1a). The search time is limited to three minutes. If the ball isn't found within three minutes, it's a lost ball.
7.1b What to do when sand affecting the lie of the ball is moved
If you move sand that affects the lie of the ball while searching for it, you must restore the original lie as best you can. If the ball was covered by sand while searching, you may leave a small part of the ball uncovered so you can see it, but you must restore the lie as best you can.
7.2 How to identify a ball
You may identify your ball in any way that gives you certainty, including by recognizing a marking on the ball, by recognizing the brand, number or other features of the ball, or by the position where the ball is expected to be. If your ball is found but you can't identify it as yours, the ball is lost.
7.3 Lifting a ball for identification
If a ball that might be the player's own can't be identified simply by looking at it, the player may lift the ball to identify it. Before the ball is lifted, the spot must be marked. The ball must not be cleaned, except as far as needed for identification. If the lifted ball is the player's ball, it must be replaced on its original spot.
7.4 Ball accidentally moved while trying to find or identify it
If you accidentally move your ball while searching for it or trying to identify it, there's no penalty. The ball must be replaced on its original spot. If you don't know the exact spot, you'll need to estimate it.