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.
So, you don’t have to replace the ball on its original spot.
If we jump back to Rule 14.1a, it also doubles down on this stating that: “When a ball is lifted to take relief under a Rule, the player is not required to mark the spot before lifting the ball.”
