The Wiltshire refs will recognise this one as it happened at a Seniors Championship a couple of years ago – it should be in the “you couldn’t make it up” category!
The scenario is that having holed out the player turns round to find that their electric trolley is no longer at the edge of the green where they had left it moments before. Not only that, it is not in sight and no trace of it can be seen. This leaves the competitor with one putter and a ball as his complete complement of equipment with which to complete his round.
Does the 3 minute rule apply after which his clubs are declared “lost”?
What rule does actually apply?
Perhaps thankfully, this was near the end of the final round and the competitor was not in contention so he withdrew allowing his two playing partners to carry on. It was suggested that someone could ring his phone which was in his bag and then listen for it – the only problem being that he didn’t know his phone number. Trolley, bag and clubs were eventually found about half an hour later deep in a wood at ninety degrees to the direction that he thought his trolley was pointing in at the time of accidental activation!
Golf Rules Guru 
Good evening Stuart
The answer now, as it was before, must be that as we are not searching for a potentially âLost Ballâ three minutes doesn`t actually apply.
We are therefore left with what used to be called âUndue Delayâ â and Iook forward to seeing your view here.
Paul had a story from the Seniors Tour which involved a Caddie heading in the wrong direction with her Player`s Clubs and whilst the very lovely Referee gave the Player a lift to retrieve same he also added two shots to the score (it being a Strokeplay event). After a pretty short look around one would imagine that either the Player has to carry on with a putter and a ball (perhaps borrowing a tee) or take a two shot penalty if he / she wants to look any longer.
Over to you young man
Kindest regards as always
Adrian
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