Sometimes a PGA Tour stop can become synonymous with a moment in golf history. We’re not saying it’s always a “pivotal” moment, but a moment nonetheless. Often it involves a quirky ruling that impacts the tournament and provides a good lesson for golfers of every level.
This week’s Farmers Insurance Open boasts a few of those moments. En route to victory at Torrey Pines four years ago, Patrick Reed was famously involved in a rules situation in which the definition of an embedded ball came into play. But let's go farther back, like 24 years, to when the event was called the Buick Invitational, and review an intriguing rules situation during a playoff between Phil Mickelson and Frank Lickliter II.
Before we detail what happened, think about this hypothetical for a moment:
Say you hit a really bad shot on a par 3. You saw it land in bounds and not in a penalty area. You're certain it’s in play and you know approximately where should be lying, but you also know that trying to hit your next shot from that position would be a nightmare.
This is the classic scenario in which you might just “wish” your ball was lost, since the stroke-and-distance penalty that comes with that rule might be your best option for salvaging a decent score. Knowing that, maybe you’re inclined not to look very hard, if at all, for the ball. Or even declare it lost after only a minute or so of half-hearted "searching."
Unfortunately, according to the Rules of Golf, a ball is not officially lost until a player, his or her caddie or partner searches for it for a full three minutes. And if someone finds it within the three-minute search period—even if you desperately don’t want them to—before you make a stroke with another ball, that ball is still in play.
Is that allowed? This is where that incident back in 2001 at Torrey Pines comes into play. On the third playoff hole, the par-4 17th on the South Course, Mickelson hit a wayward drive left into a canyon. But so did Lickliter. Both players proceeded to hit provisional balls that landed in the fairway.
Lickliter went to look for his original ball and found it in a horrible spot. Finding it meant that his provisional was no longer an option and his lie was so horrible, he declared the ball unplayable. Lickliter had no good place to drop, so he had to return to the tee to hit what would be his third shot.
Meanwhile, as this was playing out, Mickelson had not yet started his search for his ball, waiting to see if Lickliter might find his, content to play the provisional. "As soon as I saw Frank's ball, I said, 'I'm not starting to look for mine yet'," Mickelson said afterward. "I didn't want anyone to look for it, reason being there was only one other option if we found it, and that was to go back to the tee.”
Unfortunately for Mickelson, a marshal, thinking he was helping the situation, searched for Mickelson’s ball in the canyon and found it. Mickelson was caught by the TV cameras frustratingly saying: "You kiddin' me? Didn't I ask you guys not to look?"

Phil Mickelson was not happy that his ball was found during the playoff at the 2001 Buick Invitational.
J.D. Cuban
Since you can't declare a found ball "lost," both players hit their third shots off the tee. Mickelson eventually made a double-bogey 6 but still won the event in a three-way playoff with Lickliter and Davis Love III.
If that scenario sounds familiar, it might be because something simliar happened to Shane Lowry last summer at the Open Championship at Royal Troon. On the par-4 11th hole during the third round, Lowry pulled his approach shot from heavy rough on the right side of the hole into gorse bushes left of the green. Wanting no part of that, Lowry hit a provisional to 15 feet, then walked to the green "hoping" no one would find his original errant shot. But it was, requiring him to play that. He had to take an unplayable lie, and eventually finished with a double-bogey 6, which actually could have been worse but still didn't leave him happy.
Interestingly, there was a time when the Rules of Golf allowed a player to declare a ball lost without searching for it, but the latest edition of the book is very clear about what is lost and what isn't.
So what should you do if you don't want to find that tee shot? Simple. Take a stroke-and-distance penalty and play your third before leaving the tee (Rule 18.1). Just don't declare it a provisional ball, however. That way, even if you see your original, you're not required to play it.