Hitting the Mark: The Dos and Don'ts of Marking Your Golf Ball on the Green

We all remember the scene in “Happy Gilmore” where Happy’s bearded caddie uses a cracker to mark his ball on the green. While “play it as it lies” is the most prominent Rules of Golf question that came from this movie mainstay, the idea of what constitutes a ball marker should not be overlooked.

The Rules of Golf define a ball-marker as: “An artificial object when used to mark the spot of a ball to be lifted, such as a tee, a coin, an object made to be a ball-marker or another small piece of equipment.”

Let’s take a moment and review this definition a bit deeper. The one requirement for a ball-marker identified in the definition is that it must be artificial. This means that you are not allowed to use a leaf, stick, rock or other natural objects to mark your ball on the green. There are examples provided in the definition of a tee, coin or small piece of equipment with the interesting inclusion of “such as” prior to these examples.

This means that while it is suggested that your ball be marked with a small object, your marker is not technically limited in size. If your playing partner decides to use their shoe, cell phone, towel or hat to mark their ball, don’t be so fast to jump in with your judgement on their choice of ball-marker. They are well within their rights under the Rules of Golf to use these objects if they choose. But while larger objects are allowed to be used, they are not recommended as it is more difficult to accurately replace your ball where it was originally marked.

So, feel free to get creative with your choice of ball-marker, just be sure that you follow the definition of what constitutes a ball-marker and adhere to Rule 14.1 Marking, Lifting and Cleaning Ball and 14.2 Replacing Ball on Spot to continue playing within the Rules of Golf.