Rules of Golf Review: It drives me crazy when my opponent puts a marker in front of his ball on the green. Can you do that?

The intent here is not to introduce a new generation of golfers to a classic way to (cough) cheat. Rather, it’s a friendly reminder to be on the lookout for a small handful of players prone to take some liberties when it comes to marking their golf ball on the putting green.

The offending action? These golfers place a ball marker down in front of the ball, not behind it. We’ll explain the legalities of this practice in a moment. But in terms of the deception, let’s assume you didn’t notice how they marked. They’re banking on you being oblivious, so when it comes time to replace the ball, they put it down in front of the marker, positioning themselves closer to the hole then when the ball came to a stop on the green. It might not amount to much in terms of the outcome of the ensuing putt—an inch or two perhaps—but it does put their ball slightly closer to the hole and, most importantly, in the wrong place.

Under the Rules of Golf, if they hit the putt, you can call them out for violating Rule 14.7 (playing from the wrong place). It’s a two-stroke penalty (stroke play) or loss of hole (match play). In stroke play, in addition to the penalty, you have to replay the stroke if it’s considered a serious breach of the rule. A serious breach occurs when the player gets a significant advantage in playing from the wrong place. Could the cheater argue that moving the ball an inch closer to the hole did not provide a significant advantage? Sure, but go ahead and try that argument with the committee and we’ll see how it goes.

OK, with that out of the way, let’s get back to the annoyance at hand. You’re playing with someone who puts a ball marker down in front of the ball on the line of putt. Is that legal to do?

Yes, under Rule 14, you can mark a ball anywhere on the golf course so long as the mark is behind the ball or “next” to it. “Next” can mean to the side of it or even to the front of it. The key here is to replace your ball in the exact spot where it was lifted.

This rule (known at the time as Rule 20-7c) famously came into play for Lexi Thompson at the 2017 ANA Inspiration. Thompson was assessed a four-stroke penalty mid-way through her Sunday final round. The violation occurred during Saturday’s third round, TV cameras showing Thompson re-placing her ball on the green in the wrong spot from where it stopped originally. LPGA officials didn’t become aware of the issue until Sunday when informed by a call-in from a viewer and ended up penalizing Thompson two strokes for playing from the wrong spot and two strokes for signing an incorrect scorecard. Thompson would ultimately lose the tournament in a playoff to So Yeon Ryu. Later that year, the USGA and R&A and major pro tours adopted a policy that it would no longer take calls as part of a change in how its video review protocols.

Jeff Gross

So if that golfer is driving you nuts by placing his ball marker down in front of his ball, just make sure he’s putting it back in the same spot each time.

Main image: Hector Vivas