golf rules hitting provisional ball

Question
hello, my question is this we had a 4some, player A, hit a ball off the tea, thinking it was straight. after all players hit and went searching for their ball, player A could not find his ball, since there were no OB on the narrow fairways just hazards, marked by red stakes on both side.He elected to drop thinking his ball was lost and hit his 2nd shot into the green. after we all walked up to the green we found his original ball. He says that he could play his original ball and not declare a penalty stroke, because he found it on the green and not on the fairway where he thought it would be. We disagreed with him because he never called a provisional, and once he hit his 2nd ball his original ball is lost the the provi becomes the ball in play...please help..
thanks
wally

Answer
Wally,

Once the player declares the ball lost, the player in this case must go back to the tee and he would be hitting three. (Stroke and distance is the penalty for a lost ball) Once the second ball is in play it doesn't matter that he found the original ball.

Just to clarify the player would have had to play a provisional ball from the tee box if he thought his first ball might have been lost.

Since the player played the wrong ball and didn't correct the error before teeing up on the next hole he would be disqualified.

Hope this helps.

Michael