Rule 7.3 · Video, 39 seconds
Identifying your ball: what Rule 7.3 lets you do
Your ball is in the rough and you cannot see your identifying mark? You may lift it and check. Four steps apply.
The four steps
- Lifting is allowed if the ball might be yours but you cannot identify it as it lies. This applies everywhere on the course, including in a bunker or a penalty area.
- Mark the spot first, ideally with a tee right behind the ball. If you lift it without marking, you get one penalty stroke, see marking the ball.
- Clean it only as much as needed. Off the putting green, you may clean the ball only enough to see your identifying mark.
- Replace it. Then put it back on exactly the same spot, whoever it belongs to.
Tell your playing partner?
No. You no longer have to announce it to another player, and nobody needs to watch.
Good to know
You also get one penalty stroke if you clean the ball more than needed, or if you lift it although your identifying mark was already visible. On the putting green, you may always clean your ball.
In a bunker, when you replace the ball: if lifting it changed the sand, first re-create the original lie.
To avoid lifting at all, put your own identifying mark on the ball before the round. If you play a ball that is not yours, that is a wrong ball and you get the general penalty.