Accidental search movement has its own treatment
Rule 7 allows reasonable searching and gives no penalty when the ball is accidentally moved while trying to find or identify it. The ball is then replaced on its original spot, estimated if necessary. Finding it does not permit keeping an improved position created by the search.
Picture a ball hidden beneath long grass. A player parts the grass and the ball rolls twenty centimetres onto a bare patch. That bare patch is where the search ended, not automatically where the next stroke begins. Watch for the original position being reconstructed.
Read the replacement as a correction
A broadcast can show a player picking up a newly discovered ball and placing it back, which may look like a second irregular action. In this sequence, replacement is part of correcting the accidental movement. The event before the lift supplies the explanation.
Keep the example within a fair search. Deliberately reshaping vegetation beyond reasonable searching raises a separate issue. For viewing purposes, identify the search action, the accidental roll and the restoration as three linked events. This makes the player’s handling understandable without assuming every accidental movement anywhere on the course is exempt or that a newly exposed lie can simply be retained.
Questions answered
Can the player keep the easier lie created by the search?
The accidentally moved ball must be replaced.
Does this make every movement elsewhere penalty-free?
No. This explanation concerns reasonable finding or identification.
Sources & further reading
Official references for the subjects discussed. Service terms and device software can change.