Sue’s Rules Is Back – To Palm Or Hold It?

This is another in a series of rules with one of our Women’s Southern Nevada Golf Association experts, Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame rules official Sue May.

When a Rules Official plays golf, other players always ask Rules questions. None of us mind, because that’s we love what we do and educating players.

Rather than asking your husband, significant other or best friend, send it in and get the correct answer. Do you have a question for Sue? Email [email protected] today.

Question: I was playing in a tournament at Desert Willow and received a penalty I’m not sure I should have gotten. Another Player who was off the green asked me to mark my ball which was also off the green. I marked it and held it in the palm of my hand. She said under the Rules of Golf I had to hold my ball with two fingers so everyone could see it and it was a penalty for not doing that. Is this true?

Sue’s Answer: No, it’s not but a lot of player’s think it is. The Rule is 14.1c and it says when lifting a ball because it interferes with play, cleaning the ball is not allowed. There is nothing in the Rules of Golf that tells you how you have to hold the ball, you just need to make sure if anything is on the ball (mud, sand, grass, etc) you don’t clean it off before replacing it. Holding it between your fingers so everyone can see your not cleaning anything off it is the safest thing to do but not mandatory.