Rules Guy: Can you mark your ball anywhere, as long as your playing partner requests it?
Are you allowed to mark your ball in places other than the green?
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The Rules of Golf are tricky! Thankfully, we’ve got the guru. Our Rules Guy knows the book front to back. Got a question? He’s got all the answers.
Recently, my ball was on the apron in front of a hole. As another player prepared to chip from several yards behind my ball, he asked me to mark. I told him I couldn’t due to my ball not being on the green. He said it was OK because he was requesting it. Is that correct? — Gaetano Lombardo, New York, N.Y.
In this crazy, mixed-up world, who can you trust when it comes to the Rules of Golf? At least this once, that guy you were playing with!
Though his explanation wasn’t perfect, it was essentially correct. Per Rule 15.3, another player may ask you to lift your ball if he or she reasonably believes that it might interfere with his or her play.
Absent that request, you cannot lift it for interference; however, upon such a request, you are required to mark and lift (or play first in stroke play) — refusal to do so would earn you the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play or loss of hole in match play once their stroke is made. Note, however, that this is one of the times that you may not clean your ball after lifting it.
Rules Guy: What happens if I accidentally move my ball marker on the green?
For more ball-marking guidance from our guru, read on …
Is it true that when it’s your turn to putt you have “control” of the green and consequently can ask your opponent to not mark his ball but rather to leave it in place? — Adrian Elam, via email
Is it true that The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” is the No. 1 song in America? That “The Big Chill” tops the box office? That there is still a box office to top?
These things were true back in 1983, but the Rules were changed in 1984 to get rid of the player’s right to control an opponent’s ball, which had been in effect since 1960. (A ball nearer the hole could only be lifted upon request of the player whose turn it was to play.)
Too many players were taking the notion of “control” too far, asking their opponents to cluck like a chicken or do an impression of Ronald Reagan … Rules Guy kids, of course, but you get the idea: It was kind of a silly rule to begin with. Today, under Rule 15.3(a) it is your absolute right to mark and lift your ball on the green if you think it might help another player, no matter whose turn it is.
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