There was a time, before 2019 to be exact, when touching the line of putt (now known as the line of play) was most likely a violation of the Rules of Golf. Things have gotten a lot friendlier since the major revisions to the book came that year, but it\u2019s still worth a quick refresher on what can get you into trouble on the putting green.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s one that might get your attention: You\u2019re playing on a rainy day. Before replacing your ball and hitting a putt, you take the palm of your hand and rest it on the green on the line of play to check how much moisture there is, in hopes of learning how hard to hit the ensuing putt.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s true that you\u2019re now allowed to touch your line of play, including with things such as the flagstick, the butt end of your club or your index finger, you might also recall that there is a rule on the books that deals with \u201ctesting\u201d the putting green.<\/p>\n
Rule 13.1e<\/a> outlines what is allowed and not allowed. For example, you can\u2019t rub or scrape the green to figure out if your putt will be down-grain and therefore slicker than if it was into the grain. The other thing you can\u2019t do is roll a ball to test speed (hopefully that one is obvious). Do either of those things, and you\u2019re hit with the general penalty (two strokes or loss of hole in match play). You also can\u2019t do these things on a \u201cwrong green,\u201d which is pretty much any other green on the course, including practice greens. In other words, no testing!<\/p>\n Interestingly, there are things that are OK to do on the green even though it\u2019s considered testing. One of those things is placing your palm down on the green to check for moisture. Clarification 13-1e\/1<\/a> says that it\u2019s fine, and so is rubbing a ball on the green to clean off mud\/dirt, etc.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one more thing that might seem like you\u2019re testing the green, but there\u2019s no penalty for doing it. If you concede your opponent\u2019s next putt and hit the ball away on the same line of play as your next putt, it\u2019s OK provided you didn\u2019t do it deliberately to learn information about the putting green.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get sneaky with that one. It would be pretty obvious if you hit it back to get a read.<\/p>\n