Mark your ball, ID your ball.

[Jay-Bird]

What is the rule about moving the ball around to identify the ball you think is yours? IE sometimes I'll come up on a ball that only has a patch of nondescript white showing, and to see what type it is I'd have to move it around or at least disturb the surrounding grass.

RULE 12 - - Click the blue link to read the rule...

...Before lifting the ball, the player must announce his intention to his opponent in match play or his marker or a fellow-competitor in stroke play and mark the position of the ball. He may then lift the ball and identify it, provided that he gives his opponent, marker or fellow-competitor an opportunity to observe the lifting and replacement. The ball must not be cleaned beyond the extent necessary for identification when lifted under Rule 12-2. If the ball is the player's ball and he fails to comply with all or any part of this procedure, or he lifts his ball in order to identify it when not necessary to do so, he incurs a penalty of one stroke. If the lifted ball is the player's ball, he must replace it. If he fails to do so, he incurs the general penalty for a breach of Rule 12-2, but there is no additional penalty under this Rule.

[Dub]

First thing I do when I buy new balls is mark them, 3 blue dots under the number. Lately I have been playing TaylorMade TP Red's with a number 58 that helps some also.

That is a great idea.

[Ty Haegs]

Just a dot with a the grey sharpie in my bag does the trick for me...

[Big_M]

One other thought is to find out what mark/ball your playing partners are using. It helps when you are looking for a ball so you know what you are looking for. It also prevents them from claiming something that isn't theirs just because a ball was found (it happens quite a bit).

yeah... I love when we're looking for one of mine... it's pretty easy to say nope mine has a

blue "41" on it. There's no chance I'll see a similar dot or something and think it's mine. Suprisingly I have still watched an older gentleman try to play MY ball with the blue "41" from the rough in between two adjacent fairways... I asked him if that was a Maxfli with a blue 41 ... he looked quizically at the ball then shuffled off to look for the pro v1 or whatever it was he just hit 140 yds off the tee into the rough next to my fairway. Also, the blue sharpie marks transfer to my driver face, and I can see if I'm hitting the sweet spot.

[Dub]

yeah... I love when we're looking for one of mine... it's pretty easy to say nope mine has a

I used to look for this also. I was in the habit of simply drawing a red circle around the number on the ball. I'd tee it up with the circle as my impact point. It was very telling to see where actual impact occured. I'll say this....it certainly prooved that the 460cc heads are forgiving.