Your Queries Answered
When you are about to take a putt and are assessing the line etc, are you allowed to let the putter head come to rest on the line of the putt at a point between your ball or marker and the hole?
Swinglowandslow, GM website forum
Yes. Before you make the stroke there is no penalty for touching your line of play on the putting green, as long as nothing is done to improve the conditions affecting the stroke in breach of Rule 8.1a (Rule 10.2b). Daniel Sommerville,
R&A Rules manager
My ball was on the putting green and had temporary water lying between it and the hole. There was complete relief available on the putting green by moving the ball 15 feet to the left. However, one of the group insisted that the nearest point of relief was off the green three feet away, even though this left the temporary water between the ball and the hole. What is the ruling? Keith Riley, via email
If choosing to take free relief, the ball must be placed at the nearest point of complete relief (NPOCR). As the original spot was on the putting green, interference from an abnormal course condition, such as temporary water, includes intervention on the line of play. The ball must be placed on or off the green (in the general area) at the NPOCR, which will be the spot at which intervention no longer exists.
In your situation, if taking free relief, the ball must be placed at the nearest spot on or off the green where intervention no longer exists. This would be at the point 15 feet to the left as the spot three feet away would not provide complete relief. As the ball’s original spot was on the green, the ball would be placed even if the spot is in the general area (Rule 16.1).
Daniel Sommerville,
R&A Rules manager