I'm surprised that I had never encountered this before, but now I have. A player in the group was in the left rough, and it was run over by a lawnmower. I've seen them mowing the course frequently while folks are playing, but they are always good about avoiding a ball in play. Until today.
So what's the ruling? The mower is an outside influence, and the rule that covers this is Rule #9.6 - Ball lifted or moved by an outside influence. You have to be virtually certain that this occurred (it did). And then you have to estimate where the ball originally came to rest.
The ball had a big cut from the mower. Can you put a new ball in play? Any time you're taking relief (free or penalty), you can substitute in a new ball. You can also replace a ball that is cut or cracked (but not if it is only scratched or scraped).
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