Rules Guy: With preferential sluts, you can leave your club length marker on the floor while touching?

The rules of golf are difficult! Fortunately we have the guru. Our guy rules know the book from the front to the back. Do you have a question? He has all the answers.

With “preferred lies” in fact under wet weather rules, a player marked his ball, moved a club length and played his shot without removing the marker. Punishment? —Mustapha Hassan, Abuja, Nigeria

Consider the question of thinking, Mustapha and Rules Guy is humiliated by the global reach of his column.

After some deep thought we did not land on any fine. Under Model Local Rule E-3, Preferred Lies does not require a marking, because this ball is not replaced, so the fine for not removing the bullet marker does not apply to one that was not used to mark and replace the place of a ball.

For more preferred lectures, read our guru, read on …

In fact, we played with the local rule “Lift, clean and place”. A player in my foursome was in the Fairway and started rolling the ball with his club head before he realized that the lift is, not rolling. He continued to mark his ball and went through the procedure correctly. But had the player committed a violation by first touching the ball with his club? —Dudley Campbell, Scottsdale, Ariz.

There may be no gummes on golf pencils, but there is a very useful in the rules of Golf. Dudley, say hello to line 14.5, aka the “gum” rule. (No, rules of guy did not make that nickname; it is real.)

This rule makes it possible to correct a mistake without a fine when dropping, placing, replacing or replacing a ball as long as it is done before the player makes the next battle. So, although it is actually necessary to use your hand when placing a ball, in this case, because the error has been corrected, it falls under “no harm, no wrong”.

If it was not corrected, the sanction would have been a fine to replace in the wrong way.

Do you want to find the right gear for your bag in 2025? Find a club—passing location in your area at True Spec Golf.

Do you have a question about the rules? Ask the man’s rules! Send your questions, confusion and comments to regulesguy@golf.com. We promise he will not throw the book at you.