A wrong ball is outside your play; a substituted ball has replaced yours.

The ruleset used on this page

This page applies the jointly governed R&A and USGA Rules of Golf, 2023 edition, effective 1 January 2023. It was checked against the current digital Rules and the Additional Clarifications updated 1 July 2026.

The baseline examples are individual match play and regular individual stroke play. Rule 21 changes the consequence of failing to correct in Stableford, Maximum Score and Par/Bogey. A Committee's adopted Local Rules and Terms of the Competition also govern the event, so a competition can add a ball-model restriction without changing the wrong-ball test itself.

Status matters more than markings or ownership

A wrong ball is any ball other than the player's ball in play, provisional ball or a second ball being played in stroke play under Rule 14.7b or 20.1c. It can be another player's ball, a stray ball, an abandoned provisional, or even the player's own original ball after that ball has ceased to be in play.

A substituted ball is a ball put into play in place of the original. Under Rules 6.3b(2) and 14.4, the replacement becomes the ball in play even if the player did not realize they were substituting, used a procedure that did not apply, or put it in a wrong place. The original then ceases to be in play.

Intent matters when a ball is returned to the course

Rule 14.4 says that, after the ball has been lifted, lost or gone out of bounds, the original or another ball is back in play when it is replaced, dropped or placed on the course with the intent that it be in play. From the teeing area, a ball is not in play until the player makes a stroke at it.

Merely setting down a spare ball while choosing a club does not substitute it. Dropping or placing that ball as the player's chosen continuation does. Once a player has made a stroke, intent cannot be used to undo the status that Rule 14.4 created.

Classify the ball before applying a penalty

1. Identify the ball in play. Reconstruct the tee shot, any provisional, every lift, drop, placement and stroke-and-distance decision.
2. Ask whether this ball replaced it. Was another ball put down or played with the intent that it continue the hole?
3. Check authority to substitute. Relief and replay from the previous spot usually allow another ball; replacement on a spot usually requires the original.
4. Check whether a stroke was made. Rule 14.5 normally allows a procedural or substitution mistake to be corrected without penalty before the ball is played.
5. If the struck ball never became the ball in play, use Rule 6.3c. That is a wrong ball.
6. If it became the ball in play without permission, use Rule 6.3b(3). Then also check whether it was played from a wrong place.
7. Name the format. Match play, regular stroke play and the Rule 21 scoring forms do not all produce the same final outcome.

Relief and replay normally permit another ball

Rule 6.3b(1) points to two broad permissions. When taking relief under a Rule by dropping or placing under Rule 14.3, the player may use the original or another ball. The same choice applies under Rule 14.6 when making the next stroke from where the previous stroke was made.

Examples include penalty-area relief, unplayable-ball relief and stroke-and-distance relief. The penalty attached to penalty relief still applies; permission to use another ball does not make the relief free.

Replacing on a spot uses the same ball, with four exceptions

When a Rule requires a ball to be replaced on a spot, Rule 14.2a requires the original ball. Another ball may be used only when:

• The original cannot be recovered with reasonable effort and in a few seconds, provided the player did not deliberately make it unrecoverable.
• The original is cut or cracked under Rule 4.2c.
• Play is resuming after a suspension under Rule 5.7d.
• Another player played the original as a wrong ball under Rule 6.3c(2).

“Replace” and “take relief” are therefore not interchangeable instructions. Replacing normally preserves both the ball and its spot; relief normally permits the original or another ball in the prescribed relief area.

Correct before the stroke, or count the stroke and continue

If substitution was not allowed, Rule 14.5a lets the player correct the mistake without penalty before making a stroke. The player should lift the substituted ball and correct the procedure under Rule 14.5b; depending on what Rule actually applies, correction may require the original ball or may permit another ball.

After a stroke at the incorrectly substituted ball, Rule 6.3b(3) gives one penalty stroke. The stroke itself counts, and the player must complete the hole with that ball. This is why returning to the original after the stroke would create a new problem: the original is now a wrong ball.

The one-stroke outcome is not guaranteed

An unauthorized replacement can also have been played from a wrong place. Under Rule 1.3c(4), breaches between the same intervening events receive only the higher penalty. When the same stroke breaches incorrect-substitution and wrong-place requirements, the general penalty applies rather than adding one stroke to the general penalty.

In regular stroke play, Rule 14.7b then asks whether the wrong place was a serious breach—one from which the player could have gained a significant advantage. A serious breach must be corrected by the deadline in that Rule or the player is disqualified. Penalty strokes inherent in taking penalty relief are always added separately.

The stroke is erased, but the breach is not

Rule 6.3c(1) gives the general penalty for making a stroke at a wrong ball. In match play that is loss of hole. In regular stroke play it is two penalty strokes, and the player must continue with the original ball as it lies or take valid relief under the Rules.

The stroke at the wrong ball and any later strokes at that ball do not count. Additional penalties that relate solely to playing that wrong ball also do not count, but a penalty that would apply to the actual ball in play can still apply.

Regular stroke play can end in disqualification

The correction must be made before the player makes a stroke to start another hole or, on the final hole of the round, before the scorecard is returned. Missing that deadline means disqualification in regular stroke play.

The Committee may define when a scorecard is considered returned, including through a time-based policy under the current Committee Procedures. Players should check the Terms of the Competition rather than assume there is always an informal grace period.

This deadline applies to correcting the wrong ball, not an incorrectly substituted ball played from the right place. The latter remains the ball in play and is normally played out with the one-stroke penalty.

Exchanged balls have a special order test

If a player and opponent play each other's balls during a hole, the first player to make a stroke at a wrong ball loses the hole. If it cannot be established which wrong ball was played first, there is no penalty and the players finish the hole with the balls exchanged.

This narrow Rule 6.3c exception does not mean that two known wrong-ball strokes normally cancel each other.

A stroke at a wrong ball moving in water is not penalized

Rule 6.3c(1) makes a specific exception when the wrong ball is moving in water in a penalty area or in temporary water. There is no wrong-ball penalty, the stroke does not count, and the player must correct by playing the right ball from its original spot or taking relief under the Rules.

The exception requires a ball moving in water in one of those two defined situations. It is not a general exemption for a wrong ball lying still in a stream, puddle or penalty area.

Valid stroke-and-distance substitution ends the original's status

If the original has not been found and the player puts another ball in play under stroke and distance, Rule 6.3b(2) requires play to continue with the substituted ball. Finding the original before the three-minute search time expires does not revive it; the found original is now a wrong ball.

A provisional is different until Rule 18.3c makes it the ball in play. If the original is found on the course outside a penalty area within the search time, the provisional must be abandoned. A later stroke at that abandoned provisional is a wrong-ball stroke.

Restore the owner's ball to its original spot

If it is known or virtually certain that another player played the player's ball as a wrong ball, Rule 6.3c(2) tells the owner to replace the original or another ball on the original spot, estimating the spot if necessary. This applies whether or not the wrongly played ball has been recovered.

The owner does not play from wherever the other person's stroke sent the ball. The other player's breach does not change the owner's continuation point.

Rule 21 modifies failure-to-correct outcomes

The two-stroke wrong-ball penalty still applies in these stroke-play forms, but failure to correct is treated differently:

• Stableford, Rule 21.1c: zero points for the hole, not disqualification.
• Maximum Score, Rule 21.2c: the maximum score for the hole, not disqualification.
• Par/Bogey, Rule 21.3c: loss of the hole, not disqualification.

Scrambles, greensomes and other formats may use Committee adaptations under Rule 21.5. Their competition documents must be checked rather than assuming the regular individual stroke-play procedure applies unchanged.

The optional one-ball rule is a separate restriction

Permission to substitute under Rule 6.3 does not override an adopted equipment condition. Model Local Rule G-4, recommended only for professional and elite amateur competitions, can require every ball struck during the round to be the same brand and model as a single entry on the List of Conforming Golf Balls.

Under G-4, a different model put down but not yet played may be corrected under Rule 14.5. Once struck, it brings one penalty stroke for each hole on which the breach occurs, and the player must return to the original brand and model by the next teeing area or be disqualified. This is a model-specific breach, not automatically a wrong-ball breach.

The nearby ball belongs to another player

Situation: in regular stroke play, Alex's ball and Sam's ball lie close together in the rough. Alex strikes Sam's ball once, realizes the error and returns to Alex's original ball.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: wrong ball under Rule 6.3c. Alex adds two penalty strokes. The stroke at Sam's ball does not count, and Alex continues with the original ball as it lies or under an available relief Rule. The decisive fact is that Sam's ball never became Alex's ball in play.

A fresh ball replaces one lifted from the green

Situation: Priya marks and lifts her ball on the putting green, then places a different ball on the marked spot even though none of Rule 14.2a's exceptions applies. She putts it.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: incorrect substitution under Rule 6.3b(3), not a wrong ball. The different ball was placed with intent to be in play, so the putt counts, Priya adds one penalty stroke and holes out with that ball. Had she noticed before the putt, Rule 14.5a would have allowed penalty-free correction.

The replacement is also in a wrong place

Situation: after marking and lifting a ball on the putting green, Morgan places a different ball one metre from the original spot and plays it in regular stroke play.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: the ball is incorrectly substituted and played from a wrong place. Under Rule 1.3c(4), the higher general penalty applies to the same stroke rather than three penalty strokes. Morgan continues with it if there was no serious breach; if the wrong place created a significant advantage, Rule 14.7b requires correction by its deadline.

The original appears after stroke and distance

Situation: Lee searches for two minutes, returns to the previous spot and puts another ball into play under stroke and distance. The original is then found before three minutes have elapsed.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: Lee must continue with the substituted ball. The original ceased to be in play when the stroke-and-distance ball was put into play, so striking the newly found original would be playing a wrong ball. The unused part of the search time does not reverse that status.

Four shortcuts that produce the wrong ruling

• “A different ball is always a wrong ball.” It may already be a substituted ball in play.
• “An illegal substitute never becomes the ball in play.” Rules 6.3b(2) and 14.4 say that it does.
• “Finding the original within three minutes always restores it.” Not after another ball has been put into play under stroke and distance.
• “Every stroke-play failure to correct means disqualification.” Rule 21 modifies that result in Stableford, Maximum Score and Par/Bogey.

Mark the ball and record each change of status

Rule 6.3a recommends an identifying mark. Before any stroke near another ball, confirm the brand, model, number and personal mark. When taking relief or playing a provisional, state what is being done and track which ball became or might become the ball in play.

Identification answers “which physical ball is this?” The Rules sequence answers “is it the ball in play?” Both checks are necessary.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf 2023, Rule 6.3: Ball Used in Play of Hole
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf 2023, Rules 14.2–14.7: Replacing, dropping, substitution, correction and wrong place
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf 2023, Rule 1.3c: Penalties and multiple breaches
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf 2023, Rule 18: Stroke and distance, lost ball and provisional ball
• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf 2023, Rules 21.1c–21.3c: Modified stroke-play outcomes
• R&A/USGA — Committee Procedures, Model Local Rule G-4: One Ball Rule
• R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026

Checked against the joint 2023 Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, their current digital text, and the Additional Clarifications updated 1 July 2026. The July 2026 update does not replace Rule 6.3's core wrong-ball and substitution tests. Event-specific Local Rules and Terms of the Competition may supplement this baseline.