friend played a shot today and put it into the trees. He dropped a ball (at my urging) and put his provisional onto the green. He didn't really attempt to look for his ball but neither did I so he pulled out his putter and as he was taking his first step towards the green the cart girl on the next hole said "hey, your ball is right here" so he wanted to play his provisional. Me and BG458 told him that once your first ball is found you can't play the provisional under ANY circumstance. He was under the impression that he was allowed to abandon his first ball because it was in the cart path of the other hole and because it was not on our hole it was out of bounds. I told him that was not true. Nothing is out of bounds unless it is marked.

My question is (I'm 99.999% sure that I'm right about this one) if a ball is on the cart path or fairway of another hole is it out of bounds?

Second question, Did he have to look for his ball? Could he not just have walked right to the flag and hit his put there for making the provisional his ball in play? I know you can't declare a ball lost but does he have to wait 5 minutes before me can take a stroke with his putter (on the provisional ball). If he is in the really deep stuff, far far into the trees and his provisional is in a really good sport can he just not look for his ball, ask all his FC's not to look for his ball and just play the provisional? I could see how this could work to your advantace. You could play a provisional and if its a great shot and you are at best going to be shooting the same with your original ball once you get it on the green why not just not look? Does that make sense?

Final question, when is a ball out of bounds? When its past the out of bounds markers and when its off the course property right? (backyards, roads passing the course)