I guess I understand that scoring but my 2 questions are:

1) you hit a provisional down the middle of the fairway, hit it again then find your original ball are you allowed then to play your original ball and forget about the provisional and the subsequent shot? I always thought once you played the next shot it is no longer a provisional ball and your 1st ball is no longer in play. (which I believe Msklar implied the opposite in his post)

2) you play a provisional ball in case your first is out of bounds, if the first is determined lost not out of bounds does the lostball provisional count or does he have to go back and hit?

I do remeber a situation in one of the Majors (couple years ago) Phil hit a ball deep into the woods, played a provisional (in case it was lost)and screwed it down the fairway,he did not really go looking for the ball, but his playing partner found the ball(what a guy), he had to go identify it, determined that the ball was unplayable and he had to go back and hit from the Tee, he could not use the lost ball provisional because it was hit as a lost ball provisional not an unplayable lie provisional. I just wondered if the distinction between OB and lost are diferent or not.

Bob