I had a great front 9, and then an unbelievably bad back 9 (20 shots worse). I was well into the train wreck when I hit my approach shot on #16. It should be mentioned that #16 shares a green with #2 on the Oak Glen course. I never saw my approach shot, but I heard it go through some leaves. Based on how long the ball was in the air before I heard it hit leaves, I thought it would have been the trees up near the green. I searched near the trees for ~3 minutes and did not find the ball. Our club plays a local rule that allows you to take a two stroke penalty in the fairway for a lost ball (versus stroke and distance). This helps pace of play, and I didn't want to go all the way back to where I had hit my second shot from anyway. So just before I hit my final putt, someone playing #2 mentioned that there was an extra ball on his green. My ball. So I _could_ have been putting for birdie, albeit 60 feet from the wrong portion of the green.
At least one member of our foursome thought that since I hadn't finished the hole with my second ball, then I could play my original ball. Per rule 18:
If you do not identify your ball in that reasonable time, the ball is lost.
It had been more than three minutes, and I had already chipped and putted my second ball. For casual play, I would have tried the 60 foot "birdie" putt, but for a tournament, I took my 8 (one of several on the back 9).
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