Golf Rules Golf Rule 21 Cleaning Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Rules Golf Rule 21 Cleaning Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now we all like to play with a beautiful fresh clean golf ball. There's only certain circumstances where you can clean the ball. Generally speaking when you're on the putting green, you can clean the ball all the time, mark it, lift it, clean it, replace it. However when you're on the rest of the golf course, it’s very awkward and difficult to clean your golf ball within the rules. Unless you're playing winter rules, where maybe the ball is plugged in the mud and the committee say well winter rules, because it's so wet and rainy. We’ll have preferred lies or pick and place.

You can mark your ball. You can clean it. The rest of the time, it’s going to be very difficult for you to clean your golf ball even if it's got mud or grass stains on it. There are a couple of exceptions. Generally when you're picking your golf ball up for a rules infringement or for a drop or for a penalty drop, you are allowed to clean in those circumstances. The only times you're not allowed to clean it, or if you are checking it to see whether it's got a scratch or a scrape or to make sure it's fit for purpose, you're not allowed to clean it right, when you're identifying it apart from just scraping enough mud off to check that it's your golf ball. And you're not allowed to clean it if it's interfering with somebody else's ball. So if a ball was here and the player was putting down and another ball was here in their way, this person could say, please could you mark that ball. But the person is marking this ball wouldn't be allowed to clean it. It would literally be holded [Phonetic] in two fingers and then put it back again, those that are rubbing all the dirt, all the grass off when you were doing that. So hopefully if you can understand the rules on cleaning the golf ball, you should and you can clean it at the best times when you are on the putting green. Keep a nice clean golf ball, but the rest of the times be careful you don't infringe the rules. Because you don’t want to have any death penalties just because you wanted a clean golf ball. 2015-07-22

Now we all like to play with a beautiful fresh clean golf ball. There's only certain circumstances where you can clean the ball. Generally speaking when you're on the putting green, you can clean the ball all the time, mark it, lift it, clean it, replace it. However when you're on the rest of the golf course, it’s very awkward and difficult to clean your golf ball within the rules. Unless you're playing winter rules, where maybe the ball is plugged in the mud and the committee say well winter rules, because it's so wet and rainy. We’ll have preferred lies or pick and place.

You can mark your ball. You can clean it. The rest of the time, it’s going to be very difficult for you to clean your golf ball even if it's got mud or grass stains on it. There are a couple of exceptions. Generally when you're picking your golf ball up for a rules infringement or for a drop or for a penalty drop, you are allowed to clean in those circumstances. The only times you're not allowed to clean it, or if you are checking it to see whether it's got a scratch or a scrape or to make sure it's fit for purpose, you're not allowed to clean it right, when you're identifying it apart from just scraping enough mud off to check that it's your golf ball.

And you're not allowed to clean it if it's interfering with somebody else's ball. So if a ball was here and the player was putting down and another ball was here in their way, this person could say, please could you mark that ball. But the person is marking this ball wouldn't be allowed to clean it. It would literally be holded [Phonetic] in two fingers and then put it back again, those that are rubbing all the dirt, all the grass off when you were doing that. So hopefully if you can understand the rules on cleaning the golf ball, you should and you can clean it at the best times when you are on the putting green. Keep a nice clean golf ball, but the rest of the times be careful you don't infringe the rules. Because you don’t want to have any death penalties just because you wanted a clean golf ball.