There are few things in golf as frustrating as missing a putt you had been confident of making. You’ve seen the line, envisaged the roll, got your alignment spot on and stroked the putt well. Despite all that, the ball has grazed the edge of the cup and narrowly missed. You can’t believe it. After tapping in, you really want to have another go to see if you misjudged the line or whether you had simply been unlucky. The question is, in a counting round, are you allowed to do it? The simple answer is, yes.
In the Rules of Golf, rule 5.2 deals with practising on the course before or between rounds. If you are playing in a match play competition, you are allowed to practise on the course before or between rounds.
If you are playing a stroke play event, you are not allowed to practise on the course before a round, but Rule 5.2b allows you to have another go at a putt you have missed. It states that you can: “Practise on or near the putting green of the hole just completed, even if you will play that hole again on the same day.”
So, you can have another putt on the green of a hole you have just completed, even if it’s a 36-hole competition and you will be playing the course again later in the day.
Patrick Cantlay practising his putting
You could also practise your putting near the putting green of the hole you’ve just completed, and you could have a go on a practise green, if there was one nearby.
But you can’t spend 10 minutes practising… Rule 5.6a says that a player must not unreasonably delay play, either when playing a hole or between two holes. If you were to spend too long re-taking a putt you had just missed, trying again and again to hole it, you could fall foul of this rule. If you unreasonably delay play between two holes you receive a one stroke penalty on your next hole. If you do it again you receive a general penalty (two strokes) on the next hole. If you do it a third time, you will be disqualified.
The answer then to the question of whether you are allowed to practise putting after completing a hole is – Yes, but you mustn’t unreasonably delay play in doing so.
