After address, cause—not timing—decides the ruling.

The ruleset and version used here

This page applies the R&A and USGA 2023 Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, especially Rules 9.1–9.4, 13.1d and the definitions of “moved” and “known or virtually certain.” It was checked against the digital Rules and Additional Clarifications updated 1 July 2026.

Those Rules are the jointly governed baseline for match play and stroke play. A Committee's Local Rules and Terms of the Competition can supplement that baseline only where the Rules authorize them. The narrow 2026 Model Local Rule E-14 is identified separately below; it does not apply merely because an event is professional or televised.

Use the tests in this order

1. Was this a ball in play at rest? Rule 9 does not govern an ordinary ball awaiting the first stroke from the teeing area in the same way.
2. Did it “move”? It must visibly leave its original spot and come to rest on another spot.
3. What caused it? Apply Rule 9.2's known-or-virtually-certain standard to the four possible causes.
4. Where is it? The putting green and teeing area have special rules.
5. What is the procedure? Decide between replacing the ball and playing from its new spot.
6. Is there a penalty exception? Replacement can still be required when movement is penalty-free.

A wobble is not necessarily movement

The definition of “moved” requires a ball at rest to leave its original spot, come to rest on another spot, and do so by an amount visible to the naked eye—even if nobody actually watched it move. Movement may be up, down or sideways. A ball that wobbles or oscillates and stays on or returns to the same spot has not moved.

Rule 9.2a also requires knowledge or virtual certainty that movement occurred. That Rules definition means either conclusive evidence or at least 95% likelihood after considering reasonably available information. If the evidence does not reach that standard, treat the ball as not moved and play it as it lies.

“Known or virtually certain” also decides who caused it

• Natural forces: wind, water, or gravity.
• The player: including the player's actions and caddie.
• The opponent: including the opponent's caddie in match play.
• An outside influence: such as another player in stroke play, a spectator, or an animal.

Under Rule 9.2b, the player, opponent or outside influence is the cause only when that is known or virtually certain. Consider all information obtainable with reasonable effort and without unreasonable delay: what touched or disturbed the ball, the timing, the lie and slope, and the strength and direction of natural forces. If none of the three non-natural causes reaches the standard, the Rules treat natural forces as the cause.

Lightly grounding the club is allowed; touching the ball is different

Rule 8.1b(4) allows the player to ground the club lightly immediately in front of or behind the ball, except that the sand immediately in front of or behind a ball in a bunker must not be touched. “Lightly” means allowing the ground or grass to support the club's weight, not pressing it down.

If that permitted preparation does not move the ball, there is no moved-ball penalty. But if the club is deliberately placed against the ball, Clarification 9.4b/1 gives one penalty stroke for deliberately touching a ball in play even if it stays put. If contact or another action causes it to move, Rule 9.4 applies.

The normal result is replace plus one stroke

When it is known or virtually certain that the player or caddie caused a ball in play at rest to move, Rule 9.4a requires the ball to be replaced on its original spot. If the exact spot is unknown, estimate it; Rule 14.2 requires placement, not a drop. Rule 9.4b normally adds one penalty stroke.

The replacement duty and penalty question are separate. A no-penalty exception may remove the stroke but still require replacement. Conversely, if the player must replace but instead makes the next stroke from the ball's new spot, the player has played from a wrong place.

When player-caused movement is penalty-free

Rule 9.4b removes the one-stroke penalty in five categories:

1. The Rules allow the ball to be lifted or moved.
2. The ball is accidentally moved while the player is trying to find or identify it.
3. The ball is accidentally moved on the putting green.
4. Off the putting green, it is accidentally moved while the player takes reasonable actions to apply a Rule—for example, authorized marking, lifting or replacing; removing a movable obstruction; taking relief; restoring conditions when allowed; or measuring.
5. After a stroke or a drop leaves the ball resting against the player or equipment, it moves when the player moves or removes that equipment.

“Reasonable actions” is a real limit. Clarification 9.4b/3 protects care taken to apply a Rule, not a frustrated kick of a rock or a thrown club that then moves the ball.

Accidental contact and wind have different procedures

Under Rule 13.1d(1), there is no penalty when the player, opponent or another player in stroke play accidentally moves the player's ball or ball-marker on the putting green. Replace the ball on its original spot, estimated if necessary, or put a ball-marker back on that spot. Deliberate lifting or touching without authority is not protected by the accidental-movement exception.

Natural forces use Rule 13.1d(2): if the ball had already been lifted and replaced on the putting green, replace it on the spot from which it moved. If it had not been lifted and replaced, play it from its new spot. Merely marking the ball is not enough—the ball must have been both lifted and replaced.

Wind usually means play the new spot—but Rule 9.3 has two exceptions

If wind, water or gravity moves a ball at rest, Rule 9.3 normally imposes no penalty and the ball is played from its new spot. The first exception is the lifted-and-replaced putting-green rule above.

The second exception applies after a ball has been put into play by dropping, placing or replacing it: if natural forces then move that ball at rest into another area of the course or out of bounds, replace it on its original spot. For example, a properly dropped ball that rests in the general area and then rolls into a penalty area because of gravity is replaced, not played from the penalty area.

If it moves but remains in the same area of the course, the normal play-from-the-new-spot rule still applies unless the lifted-and-replaced putting-green exception controls.

If movement starts during the backswing and the stroke is made

Rule 9.1b applies when a ball at rest begins moving only after the player has begun the stroke or backswing and the player goes on to make the stroke. Do not replace the ball; the stroke counts, and play from wherever the struck ball comes to rest.

That procedure does not erase a penalty for the cause. If the player caused the initial movement, apply Rule 9.4b unless an exception removes the penalty. If the player stops and does not make the stroke, Rule 9.1b does not supply this special “do not replace” outcome; resolve the movement under the ordinary Rule 9 provisions.

A ball knocked off the tee before the stroke is penalty-free

Under Rule 6.2b(5), a ball used to start a hole—or to play again from the teeing area under a Rule—is not in play until a stroke is made. If the player knocks it off the tee while addressing it, the ball may be re-teed anywhere in the teeing area without penalty.

Rule 6.2b(6) is broader when a ball already in play lies in the teeing area after a stroke or relief: the player may lift or move it without penalty and play that ball or another ball from anywhere in the teeing area. These permissions apply only to the teeing area the player is required or allowed to use, not any nearby set of tees.

Failing to replace changes the penalty

If Rule 9.4 required replacement and the player instead plays the ball from its new spot, Rule 14.7a gives the general penalty: loss of hole in match play or two penalty strokes in stroke play. Under the exception in Rule 1.3c(4), that general penalty replaces the one-stroke Rule 9.4b penalty; the penalties are not added for the same act.

In stroke play, the player must correct the error before beginning another hole—or before returning the scorecard on the final hole—only if playing from the wrong place could have given a significant advantage, making it a “serious breach” under Rule 14.7b. Otherwise the ball is played out from where it came to rest after the wrong-place stroke.

Model Local Rule E-14 protects only complete unawareness

The July 2026 Additional Clarifications include Model Local Rule E-14. A Committee may adopt it for the narrow live-television situation in which later evidence shows that a player caused a ball to move but, before the next stroke, the player was neither aware that it had moved nor aware that it might have moved. If adopted, the player gets the one-stroke Rule 9.4b penalty, unless an exception applies, but is not treated as having played from a wrong place.

E-14 is not automatic. It gives no protection when the player knew the ball moved or might have moved, even if the player investigated and incorrectly concluded otherwise. Check the event's Local Rules before applying it.

Opponent and outside influence usually mean replace

If an outside influence—such as a spectator, animal or another player in stroke play—is known or virtually certain to have moved the ball, Rule 9.6 requires replacement and gives no penalty. In match play, Rule 9.5 normally requires replacement and gives the opponent one penalty stroke, subject to its exceptions, including accidental movement during search and on the putting green.

These are not player-caused-movement rulings. They belong in the decision path because a ball that moves while the player is at address may in fact have been moved by somebody or something else.

The club brushes rough and the ball rolls

Situation: the player settles the club behind a ball in the rough; the grass and ball move immediately, and the evidence makes it at least 95% likely that the player's action caused the movement.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: replace the ball on its original spot and add one penalty stroke under Rule 9.4. The decisive fact is known or virtually certain player causation—not that the movement followed address.

Wind moves an unmarked ball on the green

Situation: the player has not lifted and replaced the ball. After the player takes a stance without touching it, a gust moves the ball to a new spot.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: no penalty; play from the new spot under Rules 9.3 and 13.1d(2). The decisive fact is that natural forces caused the movement before the ball had been lifted and replaced.

The putter accidentally nudges the ball

Situation: while making a practice stroke on the putting green, the player accidentally clips the ball and moves it.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: no penalty under Rules 9.4b Exception 3 and 13.1d(1), but replace the ball. The decisive facts are that the contact was accidental and the ball was on the putting green.

The ball starts moving during the backswing

Situation: the club disturbs grass after the backswing begins, the ball starts to move, and the player completes the stroke.

R&A/USGA 2023 ruling: do not replace; count the stroke and continue from where the struck ball finishes. Add one penalty stroke under Rule 9.4b if it is known or virtually certain that the player caused the initial movement. Rule 9.1b's timing changes the procedure, not the cause test.

Four shortcuts that produce the wrong ruling

• “It moved after address, so it is one stroke.” Timing alone proves neither movement nor cause.
• “No penalty means play it where it rolled.” Many no-penalty situations still require replacement.
• “Wind always means play the new spot.” Rule 9.3 has putting-green and cross-area/out-of-bounds exceptions.
• “If I did not see it move, I cannot be responsible.” Clarification 9.2a/2 can still attribute the player's own action; E-14 changes the wrong-place outcome only when adopted and only in its narrow circumstances.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf, 2023 edition, including the definitions of “moved” and “known or virtually certain”
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 9: ball at rest lifted or moved
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 13.1d: ball or ball-marker moves on putting green
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 6.2b(5)–(6): ball in the teeing area
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 8.1b(4): grounding the club
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 14.2 and 14.7: replacing and playing from a wrong place
• R&A/USGA — current Clarifications to Rule 9, especially 9.2a/1–2, 9.2b/1 and 9.4b/1–3
• R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026, Model Local Rule E-14

Checked against the jointly issued 2023 Rules of Golf and digital Clarifications current to 1 July 2026. Local Rules and Terms of the Competition may supplement the baseline; Model Local Rule E-14 applies only when the Committee has adopted it.