Decision path
Use this sequence before touching the ball
- Ask whether the ball might be the player's ball.
- Try to identify it without moving it, using its position, markings, brand, model, number, and condition.
- If it cannot be identified as it lies, mark its exact spot.
- Lift or rotate it only enough to find identifying evidence.
- Off the putting green, clean only the area needed for identification.
- Replace the ball by hand on its original spot, even if it belongs to someone else.
- Remove any ball-marker before a stroke is made.
Identification
A personal mark is useful, but it is not the only proof
Rule 7.2 recognises three ways to identify a ball at rest. The player or anyone else may have seen it come to rest in circumstances that establish whose ball it is. The player may see a personal identifying mark. Or the ball's brand, model, number, and condition may match the player's ball in the area where it is expected to be.
The last two methods fail if an identical ball or an identically marked ball is in the same area and there is no way to tell them apart. Rule 6.3a therefore recommends putting an identifying mark on the ball, but the absence of a mark does not automatically make a ball lost.
When lifting is allowed
The need to identify must be real
Rule 7.3 applies when a ball might be the player's ball but cannot be identified in its present position. The player may then lift it, or deliberately rotate it, to expose enough of the surface to identify it.
If the logo, number, or personal mark is already visible and establishes identity, lifting under Rule 7.3 is not reasonably necessary. Placing a marker first does not create permission. On the putting green, a separate permission under Rule 13.1b normally allows the ball to be marked, lifted, and cleaned whether or not identification is in doubt.
Marking
Mark before lifting or deliberately rotating
When a ball will have to be replaced on its original spot, Rule 14.1a requires that spot to be marked first. The player may 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 ball-marker can be a coin, tee, purpose-made marker, or another small artificial object used for that purpose. Deliberately rotating the ball on the spot counts as lifting, so turning it to reveal a mark without first marking the spot is a procedural breach.
No announcement required
The player may proceed without calling someone over
The current Rules do not require a player to announce an intention to lift for identification or to give an opponent, marker, or fellow player an opportunity to watch. That requirement was removed when the modernised Rules took effect in 2019.
The player remains responsible for having a valid reason, marking accurately, limiting any cleaning, and replacing correctly. Explaining the action to nearby players can avoid confusion, but it is courtesy rather than a condition of Rule 7.3.
Cleaning limit
Expose the evidence, not the whole ball
Off the putting green, a ball lifted for identification may be cleaned only as much as needed to identify it. For example, the player may wipe enough mud from one area to reveal a personal mark or identifying print, but may not use the procedure as an opportunity to clean the entire ball.
Rule 14.1c has other no-cleaning or limited-cleaning situations: a ball lifted to check whether it is cut or cracked may not be cleaned; a ball lifted because it interferes with play may not be cleaned; and a ball lifted to see whether it lies in a condition allowing relief may not be cleaned unless the player then takes relief. A ball lifted from the putting green may always be cleaned.
Who may lift
Authorisation is normally specific to that occasion
Under Rule 14.1b, the player's ball may be lifted by the player or by someone the player authorises for that particular occasion. A general instruction covering the whole round is not enough.
A caddie may lift the player's ball without specific authorisation when it is on the putting green or when it is reasonable to conclude that the player will take relief under a Rule. Modifications in Rule 25 give additional permissions for certain players with disabilities.
Replace, do not drop
Set the ball down by hand on the required spot
Replacing means setting the ball down by hand on its original spot and letting it go so that it stays there. It is not a drop. If the exact original spot is not known, Rule 14.2c requires the player to estimate it.
The spot includes the ball's vertical position. A ball that rested on, under, or against an immovable obstruction, integral object, boundary object, or growing or attached natural object must be returned to that same position relative to the object. It must not be pressed into soil or sand merely to make it stay.
Which ball
The original ball normally goes back
When the Rules require replacement, Rule 14.2a normally requires the original ball. A different ball may be used only when the original cannot be recovered with reasonable effort and in a few seconds without the player having deliberately made it unrecoverable, when it is cut or cracked, when play resumes after a suspension, or when another player played it as a wrong ball.
Identification alone does not allow substitution. If the lifted ball belongs to another player, that same ball is still replaced on its original spot. The separate wrong-ball and substituted-ball rules explain what happens if a player puts a different ball into play.
Who may replace
The player or the person who moved it may put it back
A ball that must be replaced may be replaced only by the player or by the person who lifted it or caused it to move. This is narrower than many casual groups assume: authorising someone to lift does not give every other person permission to replace the ball.
The ball is back in play once it has been replaced with the intention that it be in play, even if the ball-marker has not yet been removed. The marker must still be removed before the stroke.
Altered lie
Restore sand; find a similar lie elsewhere
If the original lie is altered after a ball that must be replaced is lifted or moved, Rule 14.2d changes the normal procedure. In sand, the player re-creates the original lie as much as possible and replaces the ball there; if the ball had been covered, a small part may be left visible.
Outside sand, the player places the ball on the nearest spot with a lie most similar to the original lie. That spot must be within one club-length, not nearer the hole, and in the same area of the course. If the original lie is known to have changed but its details are unknown, the player estimates what it was.
Ball will not stay
Try the original spot twice
If the ball will not remain on the original spot, place it there a second time. If it again will not stay, place it at the nearest spot where it will stay, not nearer the hole and within the location limits in Rule 14.2e.
For an original spot in the general area, the new spot must remain in the general area. For a bunker or penalty area, it must remain in that same bunker or penalty area. For a putting-green spot, it may be on the putting green or in the general area. Pushing the ball down to hold it in place is not the solution.
Common misunderstandings
Five shortcuts the Rules do not allow
- “I marked it, so I may lift it”: marking preserves a spot; another Rule must permit the lift.
- “I only turned it”: deliberate rotation counts as lifting and requires prior marking when the ball must be replaced.
- “I may clean it once it is in my hand”: identification off the green permits only the cleaning needed to identify.
- “Any matching model must be mine”: an indistinguishable second ball in the same area can defeat that method of identification.
- “Replacing means dropping near the marker”: the ball is set down by hand on the required spot.
How a ruling is made
Officials look at the evidence available at the time
Whether identification lifting was reasonably necessary is a question of fact. A referee or Committee can consider what was visible, where the ball was expected to be, whether similar balls were nearby, and what the player and other people saw. A personal mark is strong evidence, but Rule 7.2 does not make it the only acceptable evidence.
When an original spot has to be estimated, Rule 1.3b accepts the player's reasonable judgment if the player promptly and carefully did what could reasonably be expected to locate it. Later video or other information showing a small inaccuracy does not by itself overturn that determination after the stroke.
Worked cases
Four practical rulings
- Mark hidden in rough: the ball might be the player's but the visible surface gives no answer. Mark, lift or rotate, expose only enough of the surface to identify, and replace.
- Number already visible: the visible brand, model, number, condition, and location establish identity with no identical ball nearby. A lift under Rule 7.3 is not reasonably necessary.
- Another player's ball: a properly marked and lifted ball proves to belong to someone else. Replace that ball on the spot; the search for the player's ball continues.
- Muddy ball on the green: mark and lift under the putting-green permission, clean it fully if desired, then replace it on the original spot and remove the marker.
Penalties and correction
The consequence depends on what went wrong
- One penalty stroke: lifting the player's ball for identification when not reasonably necessary, failing to mark before lifting, or cleaning more than identification allows.
- One penalty stroke: playing a ball replaced by an unauthorised person, or playing after it was replaced in a wrong way but on the required spot.
- One penalty stroke: making a stroke with the ball-marker still in place.
- General penalty: playing from a wrong place—loss of hole in match play or two penalty strokes in stroke play—or failing to re-create an altered lie in sand before playing from it.
Rule 14.5 normally allows a replacement, substitution, dropping, or placing mistake to be corrected before the ball is played. Correction does not erase a penalty already incurred for an unauthorised lift or prohibited cleaning.
Official references
Source material