When I was first starting to play golf I would lose golf balls all the time. It was terrible. It got so bad that I started playing exclusively with the range balls they sell in the clubhouse. As I eventually discovered, that only made matters much worse.
So what do you do when you lose a golf ball? You perform a drop. Here are the three steps to take:
- Try and find a spot closest to where you lost your golf ball that gives you total relief from any hazard area. Any area that gives your feet and the ball room away from the hazard will be fine. Mark that area with a golf tee or something else visible.
- Move out from the hazard area and away from the hole by a distance of one or two club lengths. If you lost your golf ball in a water hazard the distance is two club lengths. If it’s a cart path or similar hazard then the distance is only one club length. Mark that spot as well.
- Now for the actual drop. Stand between your two marked spots and hold the golf ball at shoulder height and an arm’s length away from your body. Let it go without straight down without putting any kind of spin on it. Once it lands your ready to take your shot.
That’s a lot of steps and is a pretty typical example of why most people find golf intimidating because of its mysterious rules. Hopefully, in the future, you’ll know what to do the next time you sail your golf ball into a pond.