Goofy Golfer

It happened to me earlier this week.. I arrived at the course for a late round knowing my regular mate was going to join me a couple of holes later. I started with 2 other players playing steady below my hcp . After hitting my teeshot at the 4th straight on the fairway in plain sight for everyone to see, Peter arrived at the course and I decided to let the group I was playing with go ahead and wait for him. There was 1 flight behind that group and I also let them go trough , politely asking them to leave my ball.. the white one on the right side of the fairway (while pointing to it) where it was ..

We chatted a bit while waiting till Peter could hit his t-shot and when I looked at the fairway again , my ball was gone, It was picked up either by the flight I let pass by, or by one on an adjoining fairway.

At first I assumed it was just out of sight because I was looking from a different angle, but when approaching the place where I should have been it became clear .. the ball was absolutely gone.

So what do the rules say here ?

Frankly I couldn't care, I dropped a ball where I was supposed to find it, hit the green and 3 putted it.

I don't get this.. yes you can pick up a ball you find in the rough, the bushes etc when you know it isn't one lost there by somebody still playing , but picking up a ball in the middle of a fairway when you see there's still people on the that fairway ?

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