By Mitch Moon
It’s important to know how to properly mark your golf ball on the green, especially after Keegan Bradley’s costly error at THE PLAYERS Championship last month.
During the second round, Keegan Bradley was assessed a two-stroke penalty for playing from the wrong place on the putting green. There is a common misconception that the ball is no longer in play, once you have placed a ball-marker down beside the ball. The ball only comes out of play once it has been lifted and it returns to play, once replaced on its original spot.
As Bradley approached the green, he set a ball-marker behind his ball, but never picked the ball up off the ground. He probably did so to make it easier to read the putt from a long distance. As he was studying the putt, a gust of wind caused his ball to move to a new spot further away from the original spot. Thinking he needed to replace the ball, to the previous spot, Bradley replaced the ball back to the original mark and played out from there. That, however, was wrong.
A new rule, beginning in 2019, makes reference to an ‘Own the Spot’ concept on the putting green, per Rule 13.1 d(2). Once a ball is lifted and replaced, the ball must be played from that spot no matter what causes the ball to move.
This rule resets every time your ball ends up on putting green, even if your previous stroke was also from the putting green.
Example:
If you hit a 20-foot putt to within five feet short of the hole, you must both mark and lift the ball to ‘Own the Spot.’ The key term in interpreting this rule, is the word “lift.”
Keegan never lifted his ball from its spot, even though he had marked it. Thus, it didn’t matter that the ball-marker was set behind the ball. His ball was moved by natural forces, the wind, thus he should have played the ball from the new location.
Because he failed to play the ball from the new spot, he was assessed a general penalty of playing from the wrong place.
Make note, simply rotating your golf ball, with the ball-marker in place, satisfies the “lifting” requirement and would thus ‘Own the Spot.’
Know the Rules. They are there to help you.
