You pull your tee shot, and you follow it along the treeline, where you think it ends up out of bounds, but you can’t be sure. What’s the correct course of action? Take the cart up and look for your ball? Play another just in case and hope you find the first? If you don’t know how to properly handle this situation, you could be costing yourself unnecessary strokes.
More often than not, if you’re unsure whether your shot stayed in, you should play it safe and hit a provisional ball. By playing a provisional ball, you save your group the time of going out and searching for your first shot only to return to the tee when you can’t find it, and you help your score by avoiding being penalized stroke and distance.
Before playing your new ball, it’s important to fully understand the rules and circumstances under which you’re allowed to legally use a provisional ball.