amongthecedars

Have a question regarding the putting surface rules and the total putts stat. As far as I know, when a player lifts his ball without marking he is assigned a two stroke penalty. He then must replace the ball and putt out and add the two strokes. My question is, do these two strokes count towards his total putts traditional statistic on the hole and for the round? Or would it still be tracked as a three putt? The question was brought up when a member of our group was trying to get out of lifting the ball before his 3rd putt during a 4 putt game within the group. Thanks for your opinions.