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Golf Monthly's Joel Tadman walks you through the essential etiquette for the putting green. Learn the unwritten rules, from not stepping on a player's line to avoiding common distractions, to ensure you respect the course and your playing partners.
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00:00Now the putting green, it's almost like sacred ground. It's the part of the golf course that you
00:04need to treat a little bit differently to the rest of the golf course. And as a result, there
00:08are some things that you absolutely should never do on the putting green. So let's dive into those
00:13right now. Okay, so number one, the thing you absolutely should never do on the putting green
00:21is stand on someone else's line. And when we're talking about lines, we're talking about the line
00:25from the ball towards the hole, the journey it would take. You should not stand on someone else's
00:29line because you could leave some footprints in the ground, some defamations, even create
00:34a spike mark, which could cause the ball to deviate offline and miss, which could draw some pretty
00:39nasty looks from your playing partners and get them very annoyed and frustrated. So generally
00:44on the green, you need to be aware of sort of where everyone's markers are and make sure
00:48you're not treading on the green in the line from their ball to the hole. And also remember
00:52about the through line as well. So the through line is sort of the journey if the ball were
00:55to miss the hole, where it's going to be travelling past the hole, try not to stand on those
00:59through lines either. You look at pros when they're sort of holing out from relatively
01:04close to the hole, they're always looking and walking in a long winded way around the hole
01:08sometimes to get to where they need to putt from to make sure they're avoiding standing
01:11in anyone's line or through line. So generally be really aware of where you're standing.
01:17Obviously, I think this sort of unwritten rule is probably kind of a bit out of fashion
01:21these days because a lot of golfers now have soft spikeless shoes which don't tend to leave
01:27marks on the green. But if the greens are quite soft, you want to be extra careful about where
01:30you're treading. So when you're on the green, be really careful of where you're standing.
01:33Don't turn on anyone's lines or through lines and you're going to hopefully then avoid any
01:37of those horrible looks from your playing partners.
01:42Right, another thing you should absolutely never do on the putting green is stand in
01:46someone's sight line when they're over the ball. And what I mean by that is if you're taking a putt
01:49and you look up to the hole, if you look beyond the hole, there should never be anyone stood there
01:53because it could cause some last minute distractions when you're about to pull the trigger. Especially
01:58if that person is sort of making some practice swings or moving around fiddling with things in
02:02their pocket, etc. It could cause some unwanted distractions. So you're perfectly within your
02:07right if you are taking a putt and you see someone behind the hole to ask them to move. I'd
02:10say 30 degrees
02:12either side is enough leeway to make sure they're not affecting your concentration. And also don't forget to
02:19consider your shadows, especially if you're playing on a sunny day, early morning, late evening,
02:23you get those really long shadows. And those can be distracting if they're sort of in the way
02:27between your ball and the hole if you're moving around. And they can also affect your ability to
02:31read the putt if you've got a shadow on some of the journey to the hole. So consider where your
02:35shadows
02:35are, make sure your shadows are nowhere near where someone's putting from, make sure you don't stand
02:40behind the hole. And therefore, you'll avoid those distractions that could cause someone to miss a putt.
02:53All right, I'm going to stop right there because this is another mistake that you should absolutely
02:57never make. On the putting green, tapping the ball in from the wrong side of the hole,
03:01leaning over. Don't get it wrong, nine times out of 10, maybe even 99 times out of 100,
03:06the ball would go in. But on that one time where you make a complete hash of it, you maybe
03:11hit the
03:12ball into the ground like this. You don't get the ball into the hole. It's going to be immensely
03:16frustrating. And it's only going to worsen your mood. You're already annoyed that you've missed a
03:19short putt. You go to tap it in and you've made your mood even worse. And that's not going to
03:23help
03:23your mindset going into the next few holes. So generally speaking, I would avoid doing this sort of
03:28backwards tap in. Take your time. Even if you're doing it to avoid people's markers,
03:33it doesn't matter. There's no excuse. Take your time, go around, tap it in properly,
03:38or mark it if you're not sure or confident you're going to hole it to avoid that really
03:41embarrassing mistake where you go to tap it in like this, make a complete hash of it,
03:45and your score is only going to go up from there.
03:51Now, another thing you should absolutely never do on the putting green is walk in a way that creates
03:56scuff marks or spike marks on the green. When you're on a putting green, especially like the ones we have
04:02here at the end in Spain, which are absolutely incredible. They're pristine, lightning fast.
04:07The last thing you want to do is create spike marks, scuff marks for golfers who are playing behind
04:12and then have to come through and putt through. Obviously, you are allowed to tap down spike marks,
04:17scuff marks, but the last thing you want to do is when you're on the green, especially if maybe you're
04:20frustrated by how you're playing, walking in a way where you sort of scuff your heels on the ground like
04:25this, it's going to leave marks on the green. It's not going to look very nice and it's just something
04:29to
04:29generally avoid. I'm not suggesting you need to sort of do a comedy walk and you walk on the
04:33greens where you lift your feet up to make sure you don't scuff the green in any way, but just
04:38be
04:38conscious of how you're walking. Just make sure you're not unnecessarily scuffing the grass on the
04:43greens and if you do do it by accident, make sure you tap it down with your putter so the
04:48greens stay
04:48nice and pure and it's not going to affect the play of anyone behind you. Now, along with not making
04:54some of these putting green mistakes, another thing you should absolutely do is click the like button if you
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05:02any of our rules, tips or equipment related videos.
05:09Okay, so for my next thing that you should never do on the putter green, we've got a situation here
05:13where my ball is in the way of someone else's putt who's about to take their turn so obviously
05:18naturally you would mark your ball just like that and because that marker's in the way you therefore
05:23need to move it to the side you pick a point in the distance to line up the sort of
05:29face of your
05:29putter on and move it to the side to create a clear path for them to then putt through but
05:35one of the things that you never do on the putting green is putt from the wrong place so a
05:39lot of
05:39golfers I see they've moved their marker out of the way they've hold their putt you step in you put
05:45your ball down on the marker completely forgetting that you've moved it to the side they go ahead and tap
05:50it
05:50in thinking they've made a par or a birdie but actually they've just incurred some penalty shots
05:55for playing from the wrong place so it's really important to make sure you remember to put your
05:59marker back where it was originally even in this situation here where I've put the ball back in
06:04the wrong place I am allowed to correct my mistake for no penalty shots as long as I do it
06:09before
06:09taking my shot so I can remark it and then go ahead and move it back to where it was
06:14originally
06:14just like this and put the ball back where it was originally and therefore there's no penalty shots
06:20so if you are moving your marker to get out of someone's way always remember to put it back and
06:25if you do put your ball back in the wrong place as long as you don't hit the ball if
06:29you correct
06:29your mistake you won't get any penalty shots
06:34so another thing you should never do on a putting green relates to the flag stick and there's actually
06:39quite a few things that you shouldn't do when it comes to where you're positioning the flag and how
06:43it's going to affect the play of golfers on the green so for example the first one you shouldn't
06:48really put the flag in a position where a ball could strike the flag as it's moving obviously in
06:54this situation here from where I'm putting from the ball could easily go miss past the hole and hit
06:58the flag there's actually no penalty now if the ball does hit the flag on the green you just play
07:03the
07:03ball as it lies but it's obviously sort of a bad bad etiquette to put the flag in a position
07:07where
07:07it could be struck another thing you want to avoid is putting the flag in a position where it could
07:12be
07:13deemed as assisting you with alignment so for example if I'm trying to carry out this putt and
07:17I put the flag in sort of this position you can make a case that this is providing me with
07:22some
07:22alignment assistance and therefore you could be breaking the rules and could be in a bit of trouble
07:27so make sure you don't do that and just a final thing when you are putting the flag stick back
07:31in
07:32the hole be really careful to not sort of do it in anger and be quite careless and strike the
07:36edge of
07:36the hole because you could damage the hole and that could obviously affect the the play of people behind so
07:41be careful when you're putting the flag in the hole make sure you don't catch any of the lip
07:45and damage the the cup of the hole so yeah when it comes to the flagship there's a few things
07:50to
07:50remember but never do those things on the green and you'll avoid those penalties
07:58and finally another thing you should absolutely never do on the putting green arguably the most
08:03important is to forget to repair your pitch marks it's really important that every time your ball
08:08leaves a pitch mark on the green you repair it but also that you repair it correctly i think it's
08:13good etiquette as well if you see other pitch marks that other people have made don't be selfish repair
08:18your own and maybe one or two others that's that way the condition of your green is going to improve
08:23and the surfaces and are going to be much more enjoyable to play on especially if it's your home
08:27course so you see here i've made a pitch mark on this green here direction of play sort of coming
08:32this
08:32way correct method is to sort of push inwards don't make the mistake of pushing upwards like that
08:39because that could break the roots and cause the pitch marks to take longer to repair so you always
08:44sort of prepare this way push it inwards from the back and the sides once you're finished give it a
08:49tap
08:49down and there you go all nice and clear for the next person so always remember to repair your pitch
08:55marks to maintain the quality of those putting so that brings you then to this video on the seven
09:00things you should absolutely never do on the putting green i hope you enjoyed it and if i've
09:05missed any do let me know down in the comments i'd love to hear from you that's all from me
09:08here
09:09ala haf the end of golf links on the south of spain i'll see you next time
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