Wrong ball

Gary, I was watching the Ass't Pro OVGA event at HYLANDS today & the following occurred.

Tee shot into the trees, found & advanced via several strokes up to the green. At that point the player realized that the red mark on the ball was not his! No provisional as they all felt they saw were it landed.

Back down the fairway & searched again with no luck.
All the way back to tee-off again with a new ball. Hole was completed with the new ball.

The agreement was a two stroke penalty for playing the wrong ball plus the stroke & distance for the lost ball.
So he was lying 4 before his 2nd visit to the tee-off area. He ended up with a 9.

There was lot's of discussion between the 1st & 2nd rounds. Some were saying a penalty for every time the wrong ball was hit. Others said a max. of 4 strokes per hole. Etc. Etc.

How did they do??

The penalty for playing a wrong ball is 2 strokes.
Strokes played by a competitor with a wrong ball do not count in his score.

1 stroke for the original ball
1 penalty stroke for the lost ball
2 penalty strokes for playing a wrong ball

When the player plays again from the teeing ground, he will be playing stroke number 5.

BTW - Once he discovers the error and returns to search for the original ball, he does not have a full 5 minutes to search.
If the first search lasted for 2 minutes before he found and played the wrong ball, then he only has 3 minutes remaining.
The clock would start again when he got back to the place where the original ball was likely to be.

I am intrigued by your use of the terms: "the AGREEMENT was" and "how did THEY do"
I can't think of how any "agreement" or "they" could be involved in determining a player's score.
Could you explain?

Sorry Gary for any confusion. I was just asking if they had arrived at the correct total of penalty strokes. It looks like they did. The "Agreement" referred to the consenus reached between rounds not what went on at the scene......

I was sort-of surprised to see the variance of rule options going on but I guess even our local Assistant Pro's stumble a bit.

BTW:
Thanks again for your continued clear & logical explanations!!! And of course, for your patience,

Cheers,

Why am I not surprised?         :D

What would be the ruling if this had been match play and you had found your ball after you had already played the other?

Aaaaah. The beauty of match play. It is gloriously simple.

If a player plays a stroke with a wrong ball except in a hazard, he shall lose the hole.

No need to search for the original ball.
No confusion as to the number of penalty strokes.
Just pickup and move on to the next hole. :)

That's what i thought. Thanks