This Ever Happen'd to you?

Was on the 7th hole at my local club approaching the tee with a nice chip over the water trap onto the green for GIR. Slightly over hit the ball which ran off the green by about 6ft, when from behind some trees out pops a greensman on his mower and runs over my ball depositing it a hundred yards or so back up the fairway!

What should i have done (considering I could not catch the blighter on his mower)? Taken a 2 shot drop or play from the balls new position?

I would say replace the ball as near as possible to where it was before it got run over, without penalty. THat is my view.

On the other hand there will be some who say that the ball was moved by an outside agency and should be played from where it lay after the mower had moved it 200 yards.

If in a competition the best thing would be to play both scenarios and then submit the details to the competition secretary for his judgement. 

when a ball has "come to rest" if it is moved by any interference including being hit by another ball. It should be replaced and played without penalty.

same thing happened to me in a society comp at horsforth. lawnmower ran over my ball which flew up in the air and was never seen again. I was told by an "expert" to take a free drop where I last saw the ball... I looked it up later and found he was almost right. But the ball should be replaced not dropped.