Questions from a caddy

[Larry_Keltto]

Many of you know the esteemed Ballyneal caddy, Charlie Mulligan. He asked me to post these questions:

It involves Rule 6-5 and 12-2 which states a ball should be marked. Is the intention to give the player the latitude not to mark the ball becuase the word "should" is used vice "must"?

And how do players mark their balls? Do some just use the logo's to be their mark, or do they use a Sharpie to mark their ball?  Duffy Waldorf let his children decorate the balls with Sharpies the night before a tourney...they looked psychedelic. What stories do members have about marking balls?

[John Moore II]

I would say that unless the player uses a golf ball that was made in Japan with Japanese writing on it, he or she had better put some kind of mark on it. There is no way, if you are playing a "Titleist 2" and hit into trouble, that you will be able to positively identify your ball without some mark on it that was specific to you. And the use of "should" rather than "shall" or "must" is due to the first sentence, I think: "The responsibility for playing the proper ball rests with the player." You can choose to mark your ball if you like, but thats taking a pretty big risk.

[AndrewB]

http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Decision-12/#12-2/1
http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Decision-27/#27/10

[Andrew Brown]

Firstly - the word "should" is explained in the Rules in the section "How to use the Rule Book";
"should" means the action is recommended but not mandatory

However, as most players realise, marking your ball helps being in the identification process.

The obvious advantage to marking your ball, and thereby being able to identify your ball easily, is to avoid hitting a wrong ball (Rule 15-3)

If you cannot identify your ball, you run the risk of a situation possibly your ball being deemed "lost", even when it could be right there in front of you
27/10  Player Unable to Distinguish His Ball from Another Ball
Q. A and B hit their tee shots into the same area. Both balls were found but, because A and B were playing identical balls and neither had put an identification mark on his ball, they could not determine which ball was A's and which was B's. What is the ruling?
A. Since neither player could identify a ball as his ball, both balls were lost — see Definition of "Lost Ball."
This incident underlines the advisability of the player putting an identification mark on his ball — see Rules 6-5 and 12-2.

An identification mark is not foolproof. I mark my ball with a pair of red dots on two locations on my golf ball. I still hit a wrong ball from long grass a few weeks back. In the long grass, I saw 2 red dots on a ball. On the green, I saw it wasn't my ball with 2 red dots....

I might add as a final comment, that it can diffuse the possibility of unpleasant situations where some players suspect a fellow competitor has possibly tried to cheat by "finding" his ball, and then another ball of the same (unusual) make is found nearby - that is a debate currently on an Australian website - and lo and behold, neither ball had identification marks.

Regards
Andrew

[Adam Clayman]

Larry. The best marks I've seen were baseball seams drawn throughout. Never will the person that marks their ball in this fashion will ever hit a wrong ball. The other interesting notation about the wording pretty much seals Shivas' argument about placing a mark on the green to distinguish a line of putt, to . . . Over Ruled.
 

[Tom_Doak]

As Andrew B. provided the link, I think Decision 12-2/1 pretty much establishes that "should" is not a "must" and that for informal play, it is not necessary to mark your ball.

[Jim Franklin]

I have "The U" logoed to my Titleist Pro v-1x's.

[Tim Gavrich]

In college tournaments, I almost always end up using golf balls with the W&L trident logo on them, so I don't end up putting any extra markings on the ball.  But lately, when I've been using regular, unmarked balls, I put random dots all over the ball to make sure I can identify it regardless of how it is laying in the fescue/in the crook of a tree/under a bush/behind a tree/buried in a bunker/half-submerged in a water hazard.  My co-captain, with his Arkansas sensibilities, puts his initials in big letters on his golf ball, so as never to mistake it.

[JohnV]

In college tournaments, I almost always end up using golf balls with the W&L trident logo on them, so I don't end up putting any extra markings on the ball.  But lately, when I've been using regular, unmarked balls, I put random dots all over the ball to make sure I can identify it regardless of how it is laying in the fescue/in the crook of a tree/under a bush/behind a tree/buried in a bunker/half-submerged in a water hazard.  My co-captain, with his Arkansas sensibilities, puts his initials in big letters on his golf ball, so as never to mistake it.

Tim, aren't there usually 4 other players out there with balls with the same logo?  I've seen cases of a player doing what you do playing a ball that his teammate had lost earlier in the round on that hole.

I would advise always putting a mark of some kind on your ball.  As the decision 27/10 that was quoted above points out, without one, you could be in trouble if someone else has hit a ball into the same area.

[Bill_McBride]

This a very amusing question from Charlie Mulligan!  I know why he was thinking about marking balls and lost balls.

He was my caddy two weekends ago.  Matt Schmidt and I were getting whacked in a match vs Mark Pritchett and Kenny Baer (aka "The Georgia Boys").

On #8, I hit my second shot into the right rough and we started looking for it.  Charlie finds a ball a couple of minutes later and sings out, "Are you playing a Titleist 1?"

"No," I holler back, "a Titleist 3 with two black dots."  I'm 50 yards up the fairway/rough line.

"Okay," he says, and drops the ball in his bib.  We give up after 5 minutes and lose the hole when Matt makes bogey.  As we walk off the green, Charlie hands me the ball he found.  It's my Titleist 3 with two black dots.  

"I guess I gotta start wearing my reading glasses," he says.  I'm ROTFLMAO.

Duly inspired, Matt and I go from 4 down after 10 and win 2&1.  It was awesome.

[John Moore II]

I have "The U" logoed to my Titleist Pro v-1x's.

Is the "U" drawn like this?

[Jaeger Kovich]

I have seen balls marked with the following:

Star of David (sharpie)

FU (sharpie)

Have a nice day (sharpie)

Dead Straight (club pro, stamped)

[mike_beene]

I draw big sloppy circles around the logo on each side and then fill a few dots in.I want to be able to easily identify my ball without lifting it.Why take a chance. And you never have that heart skip of even thinking you played a wrong ball.

[Tim Gavrich]

In college tournaments, I almost always end up using golf balls with the W&L trident logo on them, so I don't end up putting any extra markings on the ball.  But lately, when I've been using regular, unmarked balls, I put random dots all over the ball to make sure I can identify it regardless of how it is laying in the fescue/in the crook of a tree/under a bush/behind a tree/buried in a bunker/half-submerged in a water hazard.  My co-captain, with his Arkansas sensibilities, puts his initials in big letters on his golf ball, so as never to mistake it.

Tim, aren't there usually 4 other players out there with balls with the same logo?  I've seen cases of a player doing what you do playing a ball that his teammate had lost earlier in the round on that hole.

I would advise always putting a mark of some kind on your ball.  As the decision 27/10 that was quoted above points out, without one, you could be in trouble if someone else has hit a ball into the same area.

John--

Right you are; I will start marking up my golf balls in addition to the logo this year.  Every so often we will find during a tournament round a golf ball one of us lost in the practice round and we'll pick it up.  But if it has an enemy logo like Roanoke or Guilford (with apologies to Andrew Biggadike!), we'll just throw it deeper into the woods!

[Pete_Pittock]

If I have to hit a provisional ball I pull out a Titleist Pro V1 with "sional" scribed to make it "prov1sional". Have argued withour success that because I am playing that I don't have to announce. I also have a ball scribed "wrong".  Great for a laugh on the first tee.

[Bill Brightly]

Heard about a guy who drawers little ears on his balls. So they can hear him when he yells at them...

[Ken Moum]

I have seen balls marked with the following:

Star of David (sharpie)

FU (sharpie)

Have a nice day (sharpie)

Dead Straight (club pro, stamped)

My brother, the scratch golfer in the family, will write "I suck" on his ball when he's off his game.  If that doesn't bring it around, he writes "I'm shitty," on it.

My wife draws purple smiley faces to remind her that golf is nothing more than a game.  (She is competitive as heck, and doesn't always see the humor in losing.)

I put a big K, M or KM on mine most of the time.  On Callaway balls I change the chevron to an M.

Lately I have been putting a colored dot on them big enough to cover the number, but I discovered that an orange dot on a yellow Srixon causes the ball to misbehave.

[Matt Schmidt]

This a very amusing question from Charlie Mulligan!  I know why he was thinking about marking balls and lost balls.

I was thinking the same thing, Bill!

[Matt Elliott]

In college tournaments, I almost always end up using golf balls with the W&L trident logo on them, so I don't end up putting any extra markings on the ball.  But lately, when I've been using regular, unmarked balls, I put random dots all over the ball to make sure I can identify it regardless of how it is laying in the fescue/in the crook of a tree/under a bush/behind a tree/buried in a bunker/half-submerged in a water hazard.  My co-captain, with his Arkansas sensibilities, puts his initials in big letters on his golf ball, so as never to mistake it.

If you use a ball with just the team's logo on it don't you run the risk of a teammate using a ball with the same logo? If two balls with the same logo were near each other in the rough and you had not added your own identifying mark how could you say which one is actually yours and not your teammate's?

I'm just asking as the same question was once posed by the starter to another player in my group during a college tournament...at W&L actually if I remember correctly. I had always learned that I had needed to add my own mark otherwise I couldn't say definitively whether or not it was my ball...just food for thought.

[Richard Choi]

I have a routine I do before every golf trip. First, I scrub my clubs and grips with warm soap water to get them nice shiny and fresh. Next, I take all the boxes of balls I am bringing to the trip and draw "cheater" lines that go all the way around the ball on every single one of them. Finally, I put the balls back in sleeves in numerical order (i.e. box 1 has "1", "2", "3" stamped balls and box 2 has "4", "1", "2") so, that when I have to put a provisional ball in play, I know that ball is unique.

Between the stamped number and my cheater line that goes all the way around the ball, I have no problem identifying my balls.

[JC Jones]

This a very amusing question from Charlie Mulligan!  I know why he was thinking about marking balls and lost balls.

He was my caddy two weekends ago.  Matt Schmidt and I were getting whacked in a match vs Mark Pritchett and Kenny Baer (aka "The Georgia Boys").

On #8, I hit my second shot into the right rough and we started looking for it.  Charlie finds a ball a couple of minutes later and sings out, "Are you playing a Titleist 1?"

"No," I holler back, "a Titleist 3 with two black dots."  I'm 50 yards up the fairway/rough line.

"Okay," he says, and drops the ball in his bib.  We give up after 5 minutes and lose the hole when Matt makes bogey.  As we walk off the green, Charlie hands me the ball he found.  It's my Titleist 3 with two black dots.  

"I guess I gotta start wearing my reading glasses," he says.  I'm ROTFLMAO.

Duly inspired, Matt and I go from 4 down after 10 and win 2&1.  It was awesome.

I wouldn't exactly be bragging about beating Mark Pritchett.