The Importance of An Identifying Mark on Your Ball.

The words “should” and “shall” are used all throughout the Rules of Golf. Generally “should” is used as a recommendation and there is no penalty for not doing what the rules say you “should” do. When the word “shall” is used, if you do not proceed as described, there will be a penalty involved. The rule describing putting an identifying mark on your ball states that you “should” put a mark on your ball, but there is no penalty if you do not do so.

Here are two actual situations where had the player involved put an identifying mark on his/her ball, or in one case, changed the marking on the ball, the player could have avoided a penalty.

The first involves a player in an event on his tenth hole. He hits his tee ball into the left rough and discovers two balls within inches of each other. They are both his, both marked exactly the same way.

A Titleist Pro V1x, red number 2, with the player’s initials on both. When I arrived at the location, the player and his fellow competitors had already figured out what happened but did not know how to proceed. The player had played a practice round the night before and hit one of the balls in question to that area and had not found it. Since there was no evidence that could distinctly tell us which was the one that he had hit the night before and they were both marked the same way, the Rules of Golf say that the ball was lost. The player had to go back to the tee under the penalty of stroke and distance and play his third shot. He was not very happy. Had he changed the number marking on the ball he was playing in the morning or changed the way he had marked the ball, we could have determined which ball was the ball in play and there would have been no penalty involved.

The second example is a player that just takes a ball out of the box and puts it in play. Just imagine for a minute how many Titleist Pro V1x, red number 2 balls there are just in Western Pennsylvania! The player hits her ball in the right rough and it comes to rest right next to another Titleist Pro V1x, red number 2. In the absence of any other identifying mark where the player can clearly show which ball is her’s, the Rules of Golf say that this ball is lost and the player must proceed under a stroke and distance penalty.

So my advice is to buy a few Sharpies to put in your bag. They even come in many colors now. You can be creative like Duffy Waldorf on the PGA Tour and let your kids make some very colorful marks or designs on your golf balls. Or you can simply put your initials or some kind of other mark that clearly identifies the ball as yours. If you don't there is no penalty for not doing so. But as you can see, there will be times ­where even though one of the balls in front of you is your ball in play, you will not be able to play it under the Rules of Golf because you cannot say without a doubt that it is yours.

Tom Beeler is a Class “A” Member of the PGA of America and the Tri-State PGA. Tom has officiated hundreds of events ranging from events at the Club level, Playing Ability Tests for aspiring professionals and Monday Qualifying events for the Nationwide and PGA Tours. If you have a Rules of Golf question for Tom, you can send it to him at tjbgolfent@pga.com