Golf Nut, a friend and I are having a disagreement over whether a certain shot should be out of bounds. If a player slices his golf ball over an out of bounds area of the golf course and during the flight the ball curves back into the fairway, is the ball still in play or is it OB due to crossing the OB line? Also if a player hits his ball OB and it hits a tree and comes back into play, is that ball OB or still in play? Thanks for your help

Well according to Decision 27/20 under the rules of golf, both shots are in play and should not be considered out of bounds. This decision involved a shot flying over an out of bounds area and then landing in bounds. Very much like what you described. And the decision was that the ball was in play

I think that you also have to look to another part of the rules for clarification. Part of the answer comes from the definition of “out of bounds” according to the rules of golf. The definition of out of bounds is: A ball is out of bounds when all of it lies out of bounds. So from these two both of your situation results in the golf ball being in play.

Now, one thing that you need to check in these types of situations is the local rules. If the out of bounds area actually divided the course in a certain place and the ball landed on the other side in bounds (this was the case in the rules decision), a local rule could deem the ball out of bounds. This would override the rules of golf in this situation if there was a local rule.

Hope that this helps and good golfing to you!