Jason Day's hide-and-seek golf ball, hidden in a tree

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The Arnold Palmer Invitational 2021, Round two

Jason Day and the mystery of the disappearing golf ball :)

From Alex Meyers at Golf Digest:

Jason Day launched his tee shot down the right side on Friday and. . . and . . . it never came down. Believed to be stuck in a tree, here's where things truly got interesting.

At some point, Day was handed a pair of binoculars from someone. And because using binoculars—unlike, say, a compass—is (still) allowed under the rules of golf, Day pointed that bad boy up to the tree. And wouldn't you know it, but he was able to identify his golf ball, saving him from having to re-tee.

From the Irish Times:

On the 16th hole, his eighth having started on the 10th, Day was required to get his hands on some binoculars in an attempt to identity his ball which had finished up in a nest up a tree.

“I zoomed in on it and I’ve got the ball, well I don’t have the ball, but I could see the Tour BXS on the logo on the side, and I’m like, ‘that’s it, perfect’ . . . . it was a little unfortunate that it got stuck up, it was literally in a nest. So I think the mama birdie’s going to come back and find another egg there, it’s unfortunate but it is what it is.”

Day was required to take an unplayable lie and ultimately ran up a double-bogey six and then followed up with another double-bogey six on the 18th after his approached found a fried egg lie in a greenside bunker. To his credit, he responded with a homeward run that included three birdies as he signed for a 72 for 142, which left him seven shots adrift of Connors.

From Jeff Babineau, PGA TOUR:

Jason Day stood along the right edge of the fairway on the benign par-5 16th hole at Bay Hill Club and Lodge, peering skyward through giant binoculars, looking like an expert birdwatcher looking for Florida’s rare black-whiskered vireo.

Instead, Day was searching for his Bridgestone golf ball, which he’d driven right, high into a tree, with the ball never returning to earth on Day 2 of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. With the help of binoculars borrowed from a spotter, a television camera and a digital camera, Day finally was able to locate and identify his ball (he did so through its Bridgestone ‘B XS’ sidestamp) that had settled in a bird nest well up in the tree.

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