A recent topic of conversation has been how much time people are spending looking for golf balls and therefore impacting the speed of rounds.
According to the rules players have a full 3 minutes to identify their golf ball. If you find it in the three minute window of your ball search, you are allowed to take as much time as you need during the three minutes to identify your golf ball. This essentially means that if you find your ball within a minute you can take two additional minutes to identify it.
However if you find your ball just as the three minute search time is about to expire offical rules state that you are then allowed an additional minute to identfy the ball.
If you think your ball may be lost please play a provisional ball