You don’t need to me to give you chapter and verse on the preferred lies rule, also known as Model Local Rule E-3. Anyone who has been playing golf for any length of time knows what it’s for and how to do it.
But, here’s a conundrum for you – and one that may perk up your committees if they’re the ones setting the terms for preferred lies.
Do you have to mark your ball first, be it with a tee peg or a ball-marker, before you take relief for preferred lies?
Taking preferred lies relief
No, not since the new rules arrived in 2019. I’ll just let that settle there for a second so you can all finish gasping. People get this Local Rule a little mixed up with Rule 14.1 and conclude it’s a penalty shot if you don’t mark your ball.
But that’s not the case in this situation and here’s why. Rule 14.1a does indeed say that the spot of a ball to be lifted and replaced must be marked.
However, that applies when you’re lifting a ball under a Rule “requiring the ball to be replaced on its original spot”.
That’s not what happens when you take preferred lies relief under Model Local Rule E-3. While the reference point for taking relief is certainly the spot of the original ball, you are placing it in a relief area – for clubs in England that’s within six inches from that reference point.