Mark the spot; repair damage, not the green's natural condition.

The worldwide Rules of Golf are the baseline

This page applies the 2023 Rules of Golf approved jointly by R&A Rules Limited and the United States Golf Association for golfers worldwide. The edition took effect on 1 January 2023. The digital Official Guide incorporates current Clarifications; the latest Additional Clarifications available when this page was checked were dated 1 July 2026.

Rules 13.1 and 14 control the core procedure. Rules 8, 15 and 16 matter when a condition is not repairable damage, a ball-marker interferes with play, or a Local Rule provides relief. Professional and amateur events use this same baseline, but the appointed Committee's course definitions, Terms of the Competition and adopted Local Rules must also be checked.

Use two separate tests: the ball and the surface

1. Locate the ball. Is any part of it touching the putting green for the hole being played?
2. Mark before lifting. If the ball will be returned to its spot, mark that spot accurately before picking up or rotating the ball.
3. Classify the condition. Is it damage caused by a person or outside influence, or an excluded maintenance, weather or natural condition?
4. Repair only what Rule 13.1c allows. Use a permitted item, reasonable actions and no unreasonable delay.
5. Replace, do not drop. Set the ball down by hand on the required spot and let it go so that it stays there.
6. Resolve any instability. If it will not stay, use Rule 14.2e's two-attempt procedure.
7. Remove the marker. Do this before making the stroke, and restore any marker moved aside under Rule 15.3c.

Any part touching means the ball is on the green

Under Rule 13.1a, a ball is on the putting green when any part of it touches that green, or when it lies on or in something—such as a leaf or movable obstruction—that is inside the green's edge. A ball touching both the putting green and the fringe is therefore treated as on the putting green.

The special permission to mark, lift and clean applies to the putting green of the hole being played, not a wrong green. Rule 13.1c's repair permission applies on that putting green even when the player's ball is elsewhere on the course.

Put a marker—or hold a club—right next to the ball

Rule 14.1a requires the spot to be marked before a ball is lifted when it must be replaced. The player must either place a ball-marker right behind or right next to the ball, or hold a club on the ground right behind or right next to it. A shoe toe, a scratch in the turf or a club laid down and released is not one of the stated marking methods.

The defined term “ball-marker” means an artificial object used to mark the spot, such as a coin, tee, purpose-made marker or another small piece of equipment. Clarification 14.1a/1 confirms that “right next to” can be in front of or to either side of the ball; behind is customary, not compulsory.

Measure a marker aside, then reverse the steps

If a ball-marker might help or interfere with play, Rule 15.3c allows the player to move their own marker and allows another player to require an interfering marker to be moved. The new spot must be measured from the original spot—for example, one or more clubhead-lengths to the side.

When returning it, measure from the displaced spot and reverse the same steps. Replacing the ball at the displaced marker instead of restoring the marker first means the ball is played from a wrong place if a stroke is made.

Deliberate rotation counts as lifting

Rule 14.1 treats picking up, rotating or otherwise deliberately moving a ball from its spot as “lifting.” A player who wants to turn an alignment line towards the hole must therefore mark first. After the ball has been properly lifted, Rule 13.1b permits it to be cleaned.

The player or a person authorised for that particular occasion may lift the ball. A caddie has a special Rule 14.1b permission to lift the player's ball from the putting green without fresh authorisation. A fellow-competitor or spectator has no general permission merely because the ball is on the green; partner formats have separate Rules 22.2 and 23.5 provisions.

Use the original ball and set it on the exact spot

Under Rule 14.2, the original ball normally must be replaced by the player or the person who lifted it or caused it to move. Replacement means setting it down by hand on the required spot and letting it go so that it stays; it is not a drop. If the exact spot is unknown, estimate it.

Limited exceptions allow another ball—for example, when the original cannot be recovered with reasonable effort and in a few seconds through no deliberate act by the player, is cut or cracked, was played by someone else as a wrong ball, or play resumes after a suspension. Clarification 14.2c/1 allows the ball to be oriented in almost any direction when replaced, including aiming a printed line, provided its position and vertical location are correct.

Try the original spot twice before finding the nearest stable spot

If the replaced ball does not stay on its original spot, Rule 14.2e requires a second attempt at that same spot. If it again will not stay, place it at the nearest spot where it will remain at rest, not nearer the hole. For an original spot on the putting green, that nearest stable spot may be on the putting green or in the general area.

This is a placement procedure, not permission to press the ball into the turf or build up the surface. Clarification 14.2c/3 prohibits pushing the ball into the ground to make it stay.

The green has a separate cleaning permission

Rule 13.1c(1) allows sand and loose soil to be removed from the putting green, whether the player's ball is on or off it. This is separate from repairing damage. Off the putting green, sand and loose soil are not loose impediments and cannot simply be brushed away when that would improve conditions affecting the stroke.

Dew, frost and water are different again: Rule 8.1a does not allow their removal to improve the next stroke. If an accumulation qualifies as temporary water, Rule 16.1d may instead provide free relief when the ball is on the putting green, including for line-of-play interference.

People, animals and equipment can leave repairable damage

Rule 13.1c(2) permits reasonable repair of damage caused by any person—including the player—or an outside influence. Its examples include ball marks; spike and other shoe damage; scrapes or indentations from a club or flagstick; old hole plugs, turf plugs and seams of cut turf; damage from maintenance tools or vehicles; animal tracks and hoof marks; and embedded objects such as a stone, acorn, hail or tee and the indentation they caused.

The damage need not be made by the player, lie on the player's intended line or have arisen during that group's play. The permission applies during the round and while play is suspended under Rule 5.7a.

Restore the original condition; do not manufacture a better path

A repair may be made with a hand, foot or other body part, a normal ball-mark repair tool, tee, club or a similar item of normal equipment. The actions must be reasonable, must aim to restore the green as nearly as possible to its original condition and must not unreasonably delay play.

It is not a breach merely because a proper repair improves the line. It becomes a Rule 8.1a breach when the method or result exceeds reasonable restoration—for example, creating a smoother pathway to the hole or using an object Rule 13.1c does not allow.

Maintenance effects and natural imperfections stay as found

Rule 13.1c expressly excludes aeration holes and grooves from vertical mowing; conditions caused by irrigation, rain or other natural forces; natural surface imperfections such as weeds and bare, diseased or uneven growth; and natural wear of the hole. A player may not press, scrape or reshape one of these conditions simply because it affects the intended line.

The decisive question is cause, not appearance. A small indentation caused by a shoe is repairable; a similar-looking depression from uneven natural growth is not. When the cause cannot reasonably be established, the Rules do not justify calling it player damage merely because repair would help; ask the Committee when one is available.

Aeration-hole relief exists only when Local Rule E-4 is adopted

Under the standard Rule 13.1c, an aeration hole cannot be repaired and there is no automatic free relief. A Committee may adopt Model Local Rule E-4 while the holes significantly interfere with lies. If adopted, a ball on the putting green that lies in or touches an aeration hole may take Rule 16.1d relief.

E-4 does not give relief when the hole affects only the stance, swing or line of play, and it does not authorise the player to fill or flatten aeration holes. The scorecard, noticeboard or Terms of the Competition must show that the Local Rule is in force; course custom is not enough.

One identifiable mark crossing the fringe may be repaired in full

Official Clarification 8.1b/6 allows the whole of one identifiable area of damage to be repaired when it is partly on and partly off the putting green. A ball mark, animal track, hoof mark or club indentation crossing the edge may therefore be restored on both sides.

Separate damage outside the green does not gain that permission. One shoe print on the green and another on the fringe are two areas; repairing the off-green print breaches Rule 8.1a only if the action improves conditions affecting the stroke.

Flagstick damage may be repaired; natural wear may not

Clarification 13.1c(2)/1 confirms that the hole is part of the putting green for damage repair. A player may repair damage caused while removing the flagstick, even if it changed the hole's dimensions. Natural wear of the hole remains excluded.

If the player cannot restore the damage, or natural wear has left the hole misshapen, the player should ask the Committee to repair it. Under Clarification 13.1c(2)/2, when other damage cannot be repaired and the player's ball is on the putting green, the Committee may consider defining the affected area as ground under repair so Rule 16.1 relief can apply.

Lifting and replacing changes the natural-forces ruling

If wind, water or gravity moves a ball on the putting green before it has been lifted and replaced, Rule 13.1d normally requires the player to play from the new spot. Once that ball has been lifted and replaced, a later natural-forces movement must be undone: replace the ball on the spot from which it moved, without penalty.

If the player, opponent or another player in stroke play accidentally moves the ball or ball-marker on the putting green, there is no penalty under Rule 13.1d; replace the ball or marker on its original spot, estimating it if necessary. The exception is when the ball begins moving during the backswing or stroke and the stroke is made: Rule 9.1b applies and the ball is played as it lies.

The outcome depends on whether the spot or only the procedure was wrong

• One penalty stroke under Rule 14.1a: lifting without first marking, marking in a wrong way, or making a stroke with the ball-marker still in place.
• One penalty stroke under Rule 14.2b: making a stroke after the ball was replaced by an unauthorised person, or replaced in a wrong way but on the required spot.
• General penalty: loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play for playing from a wrong place under Rule 14.7a, or for an excessive improvement that breaches Rule 8.1a.
• Before the stroke: Rule 14.5 allows an incorrectly substituted, replaced, dropped or placed ball to be corrected without penalty. It does not erase the separate one-stroke penalty already incurred for lifting without marking.
• Serious wrong place in stroke play: the player must correct under Rule 14.7b before making a stroke to begin another hole—or, on the final hole, before returning the scorecard—or is disqualified. The Committee decides whether the breach was serious.

Seven rulings under the current joint rules

• Turning the alignment line: the player rotates a stationary ball without marking it. Ruling: one penalty stroke under Rule 14.1a; deliberate rotation is lifting. Mark first, then replace it in the desired orientation.
• Marker moved one putter-head aside: another player's line crosses the marker. Ruling: measure it aside under Rule 15.3c, then reverse that measurement before replacing the ball. Putting from the displaced location is a wrong-place breach.
• Spike mark on the line: the mark was made by an earlier group. Ruling: repair it reasonably under Rule 13.1c; who made it and whether the ball is already on the green do not limit the permission.
• Ball embedded in its own pitch-mark on the green: Ruling: mark and lift the ball, clean it, repair the impact damage and replace it on the original spot. Rule 16.3a points back to this putting-green procedure; the ball is not dropped into a relief area.
• Aeration hole only on the line: Local Rule E-4 is in force, but the ball neither lies in nor touches a hole. Ruling: no relief and no repair. E-4 expressly excludes line-only interference.
• Ball mark straddling green and fringe: it is one continuous impact mark. Ruling: repair the entire mark under Clarification 8.1b/6, including its off-green portion.
• Ball will not stay on a steep spot: it rolls away after the first placement. Ruling: try the original spot once more. Only after the second failure use the nearest not-nearer spot where it will stay, on the green or in the general area.

Four shortcuts that produce the wrong answer

• “Every blemish on the line may be fixed.” Cause controls; natural and routine-maintenance conditions are excluded.
• “Aeration holes always give free relief.” Only an adopted Local Rule E-4 does, and only for a ball lying in or touching a hole.
• “The marker must be behind the ball.” It may be anywhere right next to the ball, but the method must satisfy Rule 14.1a.
• “Once the ball is back, the marker no longer matters.” The ball is in play when replaced with that intent, but a stroke with the marker still in place costs one penalty stroke.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• R&A/USGA — Rules of Golf, 2023 edition, effective January 2023; Rules 8 and 13–16
• R&A/USGA digital Official Guide — Rule 13.1, Putting Greens
• R&A/USGA digital Official Guide — Rules 14.1, 14.2, 14.5 and 14.7, Ball Procedures
• R&A/USGA digital Official Guide — Rule 15.3c, Ball-Marker Helping or Interfering
• R&A/USGA digital Official Guide — Rule 16.1d, Relief for Ball on Putting Green
• R&A/USGA Official Guide Clarifications — 13.1c(2)/1 and 13.1c(2)/2
• R&A/USGA Official Guide Clarifications — 14.1a/1, 14.2c/1 and 14.2c/3
• R&A/USGA Official Guide Clarification — 8.1b/6, Damage Crossing the Putting-Green Edge
• R&A/USGA Committee Procedures, Section 8 — Model Local Rule E-4, Relief from Aeration Holes
• R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the joint 2023 Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, the live digital Official Guide and the Additional Clarifications dated 1 July 2026. The next clarification update was scheduled for early October 2026. This page states the worldwide baseline; a Committee's course definitions, Terms of the Competition and adopted Local Rules may supplement it. Model Local Rule E-4 applies only when the Committee has put it into effect.