Hunter Mahan struck his tee shot into a tree. It stuck up in the tree. With aid of an excellent camera, they were able to clearly see his mark on the ball and so ID’ed it. Thus, he didn’t have to go back to the tee on a lost ball, instead got an unplayable lie under the spot in the tree where his ball was lodged. So, we watched him under rules official supervision find the proper drop spot, and he got his unplayable penalty, set up and struck his next shot from that point.
My question is: What would have happened if, upon dropping his ball properly as an unplayable situation, and while he was getting set to strike the next shot with penalty – if the ball lodged in the tree would have come dislodged and dropped on his head or just had fallen to the ground, BEFORE HE HIT HIS NEXT SHOT W/PENALTY? Is it the case that once he dropped the next ball, the first one declared unplayable is abandoned and irrelevant any more, once the second ball is dropped? Or, if he hadn’t taken a stance and at any point prior to actually taking a swing at that dropped ball, he could play the original ball upon it becoming dislodged. And, the secondary question… is there further penalty if it dropped on him and hit him. And, if he hadn’t even had time to drop his next ball yet, and it fell out of the tree and hit him, would it be a penalty for hitting him, or if it didn’t hit him and he didn’t drop yet, does he get to just play on? That situation seems to me to be a rules nightmare….