The incident was briefly mentioned in the John Vander Borght thread.
1. "A" ball was found within the five minute time limit. Beyond that there is no time limit to identify that ball to determine th it is "the" ball, but it should be done without undue delay. When a rules official shows up to assist, any futher issue with time is moot. There have been numerous cases where a long time was taken in providing a ruling (Sorenstam at US Womens' OPen at Pumpkin Ridge, Woods at WGC-Firestone).
2. The player can use any available technology and receive assistance from outside agencies (photographer's, spectators, binoculars, etc. They can use video taken of the shot, ball etc. apparently without limit. You do not have to have physical possession of the ball to identify it.
3. Jerry Kelly uses a green marker to mark all of his golf balls. I believe he marks different parts of "Srixon" to differentiate between his golf balls. He said he was able to to identify his ball by the dimple pattern unique to Srixon, plus some general markings on Srixon balls.
He was also able to say that the ball was marked with a green marker in places where he routinely marks the ball. I did not see a "cheater line".
4. Two veteran rules officials were at the scene, I believe Slugger White initially later joined by Dillard Pruitt. Their job was to determine if the ball was identified as belonging to Jerry Kelly listenting to players involved and any other winesses. Jerry Kelly was supposd to mark his ball so that it could be identified. He did so. He then explained to the officials why he was able to identify his ball.
5. You can look at the final decision from two perspectives: a)if is his ball until proven otherwise, or b) it is not his ball until proven.
In either case, I didn't see any conclusive evidence that it was not his ball, Kelly smade a cogent argument and tie goes to the player.
6. As this thread shows, many rules of golf decisions have ardent supporters in both camps. As was pointed out earlier in the thread,
slow motion and high resolution photography can affect a decision in equally opposite directions, vis a vis Kelly anf Harrington.