Inside the Rules
Every month former MGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions Gene Westmoreland will answer one question posed by the readers of the MGA e-Revision Newsletter (click here to sign up). Jay from New Jersey asked Gene the following Rules question:
Q: In match play, if a putt is conceded, can the player still putt or must he or his opponent pick up his ball? I have searched through the rule book but have not found a definitive answer.
Gene responds:
Unless the committee has established a Local Rule that prohibits practice putting after holing out (which would be very unlikely) there is no prohibition to putting out a conceded putt.
I assume that you are talking about a "singles" match and not a four-ball match in which a putt might be conceded so that one partners meaningless putt could not be used to "educate" his partner who had an important putt.
Have a Rules Question?
Ask Gene!
Send questions to letters@mgagolf.org