Playing in the autumn and winter, you might fairly often face a scenario where leaves have blown on to the putting green. Sometimes they might have come to rest on the line of your putt. What do the Rules say about that?
First thing to note is that leaves are loose impediments – any unattached natural object and so can be moved under Rule 15.
If there are leaves on the line of your putt and you’d rather they weren’t there, you are within your rights to move them away.
In most situations that would be your likely course of action. Who wants leaves on their line, possibly deflecting the ball in the wrong direction?
But what if you have a long, sloping putt right across a green and a single leaf sits very close to the line you require halfway across the surface? Are you allowed to leave it there as a guide?
Yes, you are. You are not required to move loose impediments. If by chance, a leaf gives you a helping point of reference on the green. You can leave it there.
You can even have the leaf put back if a fellow player moves it. This is covered under Rule 8.1 and clarification 8.1d(1)/2. It says that, generally speaking, a player is entitled to the conditions affecting the stroke they had when the ball came to rest.
If by removing/moving a loose impediment (a leaf), your playing partner worsens the conditions affecting the stroke you would be entitled to restore the conditions by replacing the object or objects.
So, if your partner picked up the leaf you were looking at, you could put it back.
But, and this is the answer to our main question – You cannot simply take any leaf and go and place it on a spot to act as a target line.
Rule 8.1a(2) clearly states that you cannot move a loose impediment into a position to improve the line of play.
If you had a leaf that you liked the look of on your line and it blew away, you couldn’t go and place another one there.
So – If there is a leaf on your line of play, you don’t have to move it. If someone else does, you can put it back.
But you cannot go with any old leaf or leaves and start plotting out your route to the hole.
If you did that you would be improving the conditions affecting the stroke and you would receive the General Penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.
