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"FacebookPinterestThe seemingly innocent mechanical act of marking, lifting and replacing a golf ball on a putting green has caused its share of controversy over the decades, the latest being the unfortunate case of Padraig Harrington getting disqualified for unwittingly moving his ball a short nose hair in the act of removing his ball marker. Harrington thought the ball had oscillated and therefore was OK to play.\nBall markers come in all sizes and shapes. A dull penny is a safe choice. Use of a tee, though allowable, will likely raise eyebrows, as will the use of a large casino chip. Shiny coins are regarded as taboo by some anal souls, and for other folks, size matters: In the 1996 U.S. Senior Open, Tom Weiskopf blew a mental fuse in the first round because his fellow-competitor used a gleaming quarter as a ball marker. Shocking!\nThere are different styles of marking. Slender, steady hands favor the place-and-slide method, getting oh-so-close to where the ball touches the ground. Thicker, shakier hands can&amp;#39;t be as exact. Someone else may mark your ball with your permission, and you or that someone may replace it. Twitchy marking can preview a twitchy stroke. And then there&amp;#39;s the matter of avoiding a player&amp;#39;s line of putt by moving the marker a putterhead or two to the side, lined up with a reference point like a bunker rake. Good luck returning the ball to its original position.\nRepeating the marking, lifting and replacing process with perfection isn&amp;#39;t easy, given the variables involved, including view angle above and behind (Harrington) or to the side (camera). The rules don&amp;#39;t specify an acceptable tolerance distance (thank God), but the Decisions book uses the term &amp;quot;sufficient accuracy.&amp;quot; Perhaps it&amp;#39;s because I have shaky fingers, but I would not have penalized Padraig, even after viewing the video evidence. He acted with sufficient accurary. Plus, I&amp;#39;m troubled that marking and replacing a ball might now take too long because of the Harrington ruling.\nCreative ball-marking and replacement, real or alleged, is extremely rare at the highest levels, but there&amp;#39;ve been a couple of high-profile players over the years who&amp;#39;ve been branded -- fairly or not -- as cheaters. Normally it takes a pattern of sloppy marking to be challenged, not an isolated incident. Dave Marr told me a story of playing with Jack Nicklaus and another player for the first two rounds of a tour event. Jack didn&amp;#39;t appreciate the manner in which Player No. 3 was marking/replacing his ball on the greens. So after the first round, Jack told the player, &amp;quot;Tomorrow, each time you bend down to mark and replace your ball, you&amp;#39;ll see a pair of white golf shoes: mine.&amp;quot;\nEven legal ball-marking can drive a player nutty. Gardner Dickinson didn&amp;#39;t mind a player &amp;quot;finishing out,&amp;quot; provided he didn&amp;#39;t first mark, lift and replace the ball. Gardner&amp;#39;s view: If you need to do all that for a short putt or tap-in, wait your turn. Which makes me think Gardner might have been a fan of continuous putting. From 1966-&amp;#39;69, the USGA adopted a &amp;quot;continuous putting&amp;quot; condition for its stroke-play championships, in hopes of speeding up play. The short version: You could mark your ball only once on each green. When it was your turn to putt, you were required to finish -- without further marking -- unless you interfered with another player&amp;#39;s line. Which brings us to Arnold Palmer and the 1966 U.S. Open. Arnold, having fallen into a tie with Billy Casper after losing a seven-shot lead going into the final nine, ran his 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th about six feet beyond and above the hole. But before Billy attempted his 25-footer for a birdie, Arnold had to finish, without marking. Palmer made and Casper missed. Casper won the 18-hole playoff the next day.\nThat downhill six-footer was one of Arnold&amp;#39;s bravest strokes in a career full of gutsy, clutch shots, and a number of years ago I told him so. Ever gracious and tolerant, Arnold smiled and agreed. I&amp;#39;m not sure if he really agreed or said so just to shut me up.\nAfter 32 years with the USGA, including the last 21 as executive director, David Fay is writing a monthly column for Golf Digest."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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