A ball not found within three minutes of the player or caddie starting to search — at which point it is lost by rule, and the only remedy is stroke and distance: one penalty stroke plus a replay from the previous spot. The clock is unforgiving; a ball discovered at 3:01 is still lost, even if it's sitting in the middle of the fairway. The window was cut from five minutes in 2019 to speed up play. If you find a ball but aren't sure it's yours, you get reasonable extra time to identify it. The smart hedge, whenever a shot might be lost, is announcing and playing a provisional before you walk forward.