My drive sliced right and headed perilously close to a wooded area marked by white out-of-bounds stakes - an all too familiar occurrence with my game. So I hit a provisional ball that ended up where it belonged in the fairway, except it would represent my third shot. My opponent and two other playing partners all hit their drives to the left, so I trudged alone toward the woods to locate my first ball.
I found it lying close to a white stake. When I lined that marker up with an adjacent stake, the ball was unmistakably out of bounds. Not by more than a couple of feet, but only if you crossed your eyes would you judge it to be in play. My companions were almost 100 yards away and paying little attention to me. They couldn't possibly tell if I were "in" or "out."