There is nothing to stop your marking it.
The logic behind it is simple.
Thanks for that info.
Depends on your course layout and restrictions.
Are you equally uncomfortable that there is no compulsory requirement to first mark the position of the ball or reference point in other free relief or penalty relief situations? e.g. abnormal course condition, unplayable ball, penalty area
No it’s anytime I am picking the ball up!
I'm yet to play with anyone who actually measures the LCP relief distance anyway other than using an 'estimate by eye' of the distance, ie one open scorecard length, so marking the spot of the ball would just be half a job anyway
It's a good practice, but the Rules do not require it.
Yes but given the rules of golf are quite strict was asking what the logic is.
The logic has been explained above - marking is only required when the ball is to be replaced at the same spot it was lifted from.
There's nothing lax in the blackness and whiteness of the relief rules which all define clearly where the reference point is and the dimensions of the area using that reference point. It is your responsibility as a player to meet the requirements of these rules. How you do it is your business and I expect for most of us our practice will vary according to the situation. I would only mark my ball when taking a preferred lie if I were taking it away to my bag to clean it. Normally I just pick it up, give a clean on my trouser leg and put it down again next to or even on the same spot. On the other hand, I was called in by a player in a tournament to confirm that she could take relief from a track. I said yes and watched. She didn't mark her ball but left it in place while she identified the NPCR, carefully measured the club length and looked for confirmation that she could drop there. All of this was in the first place because she would have known that she had to get it right as she was escaping from being blocked out by a tree to a position just on the fairway with a clear line to the hole only by dropping at the limit of the relief area. It was an impressive use of the rules using the procedure she saw as necessary in the circumstances. Had she not marked her ball, it wouldn't have made any difference, by the way. Do what you need to do according to the circumstance in order to meet the black and white requirements of the rule.
Indeed in your scenario I wonder whether many of us concern ourselves with trying to mark the position of our ball before lifting it when it finishes up on a track from which free relief is provided - the fact that often it would be difficult to do by sticking something into hard ground of a track is perhaps secondary. I can‘t recall any time someone I’ve been playing with has bothered. Usually in my experience we simply leave the ball where it is while estimating, and agreeing with others as necessary, the NPR. Then we just pick it up and proceed with taking the relief afforded.
If your ball was deep in the middle of a thorny bush, you might have had to drag your ball out to even identify it. You then decide to take an unplayable lie, where you can just about get 2 club lengths relief. If the rules demanded you marked your ball, then you'd have had to mark your ball before even dragging it out. I can imagine that doing so could be very very tricky, and maybe very painful.
I would suggest "which if not known must be estimated" as in 14.3c but that explicitly applies to a replaced ball not a placed ball.
Yes but you can identify your ball and leave it where it is to give you a reference point.
You can't always identify your ball directly from the bottom of the bush. I rarely can. There can be all sorts of undergrowth in the way, and your marking could be hidden on the other side anyway. Only way is to drag it out and then determine if it is yours.
See Rule 1.3b(2), Accepting Player's "Reasonable Judgment" in Determining a Location When Applying the Rules.
I just wonder if this could be a sensitive topic during the preferred lies period, where the relief area is often only 6 inches. At many courses, frequently a wider relief area would be desirable, as it can be difficult to find a decent piece of grass to place the ball in. If a player conveniently doesn't mark the ball, and then estimates where the reference point is, I can imagine many will find it much easier at finding a nicer area of grass to place their ball.
