Rules Guy: Can I use my putter to move my ball back into position after marking?

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For reasons not worth getting into, I use my putter instead of my hand to align the ball. Is this legal so long as my marker remains correctly behind the golf ball? —Jim Palmer, Oak Ridge, Tenn.

One of the things Rules Guy loves about the Rules of Golf are their ability to surprise him, and while baseball’s Jim Palmer was known for his heater, we’re about to throw you a curve.

Prior to research — yes, Notorious TRG must sometimes look things up — we would have said this is legal, because, on the putting green, who could care how one handles their ball? And before 2019 we would have been correct, but things have changed.

You’re thinking about what you’re doing as aligning the ball, but the Rules of Golf now see it as replacing the ball, and a ball must be replaced by hand.

Were you to play the ball rotated by your putter and not by hand, even from the correct spot, you’d get a penalty stroke for replacing in the wrong way under Rule 14.2b(2). Strike one!

For more ball-marking guidance from our guru, read on …

Rules

Is it required to mark your ball when it’s on the green, whether it’s in the way of another player or not? Yesterday, I was playing with our golf pro, and he got so angry with another player because he didn’t mark his ball, even though it wasn’t in the pro’s line. The pro said that all the balls on the green must be marked … but my online research so far doesn’t seem to support that. 
—Liz Grebler, via email

This pro doesn’t sound like much of a people person — never mind that he is in the wrong, or at least partly in the wrong.

Under Rule 15.3, a ball at rest on the putting green only must be marked and lifted if it is interfering with play or helping another player; otherwise, there is no requirement to do so.

That said, a player can always request that you indeed mark your ball (again, if it can reasonably be deemed to be interfering or helping on the putting green) in which case you must accede to that request (making the request in essence a demand, but it sounds more polite the other way).

So, yes, the pro can make everyone mark his or her ball, but that’s not the same thing as declaring, “All balls on the green must be marked!” He might be better suited to a less customer-facing profession.

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Got a question about the Rules? Ask the Rules Guy! Send your queries, confusions and comments to rulesguy@golf.com. We promise he won’t throw the book at you.