The putting green gets its own rule because it is the one place on the course where the surface itself is the shot. Rule 13 is generous — more generous than it used to be — but it draws a hard line, and the line is not where most people think.
The principle: damage yes, nature no
You may repair damage on the putting green, which the Rules define as damage caused by a person, an animal or an outside influence. You may not repair anything that is simply the green being a green.
Ball-marks. Shoe damage, including spike marks. Scrapes and indentations from a club, a flagstick or maintenance equipment. Old hole plugs. Turf plugs and the seams of cut turf. Animal tracks and hoof marks. Embedded objects — a stone, an acorn, a broken tee.
Spike marks became repairable in 2019 and it is still the change golfers are slowest to believe. If somebody scuffed the green with their shoes on your line, tap it down. That is legal now.
Aeration holes are the mirror image. They look like damage, they putt like damage, and they are not damage — they are maintenance. Punch week is just something you play through.
Two limits on the repairs you make: you must use your hand, foot, club or a normal ball-mark repair tool, and you must not unreasonably delay play doing it. You are not allowed to build yourself a runway.
Marking and lifting
On the green — and only on the green — you may mark, lift and clean your ball whenever you like, no reason required. Mark it first, then lift it. Replace it on the exact spot it came from.
Anywhere else on the course, cleaning the ball is restricted. The green is the free zone.
The wind rule everybody gets wrong
A gust moves your ball on the green. What happens depends on one thing: had you already lifted and replaced it?
Yes, you had marked and replaced it
Put it back on the original spot. No penalty. It does not matter what moved it — wind, gravity, a slope.
No, you had not lifted it yet
Play it from wherever it ends up. That is now the ball's spot.
Which gives you a small piece of strategy on a windy day: on an exposed green with your ball sitting on a slope, marking and replacing it protects you. Leave it alone and you are playing it from wherever the weather puts it.
And if you accidentally move your ball or your marker on the green — nudge it with your putter, drop your glove on it — there is no penalty. Replace it and carry on. That leniency applies on the putting green specifically.
The two-stroke penalty nobody knows
Here is the one that costs money in a Saturday game.
If your ball in motion hits another ball at rest, and both balls were on the putting green before your stroke, you get the general penalty — two strokes.
In match play, there is no penalty for the same thing.
So in a stroke play round, if someone's ball is on the green in your line, ask them to mark it. Every time. It costs ten seconds and the alternative is two strokes for a putt you might not even hole.
The other ball, incidentally, gets replaced on its original spot, and your ball is played from where it finishes.
Touching your line
You may touch your line of putt. There is no penalty for it, and there has not been for years — the old prohibition is gone. What you still cannot do is improve conditions affecting your stroke: pressing down a ridge, brushing away dew or frost on your line, or scraping the grass in the direction you want the ball to run.
Loose impediments — leaves, sand, loose soil, a pitchfork of grass clippings — you may remove anywhere on the course, including the green, and including on your line. Just do not press anything down while you do it.
The short version
Rule 13 at a glance
- Repairable
- Ball-marks, spike marks, old hole plugs, animal tracks, equipment scrapes, embedded objects
- Not repairable
- Aeration holes, scarifying grooves, weather damage, natural imperfections, wear around the hole
- Marking
- Mark, lift and clean any time on the green
- Wind
- Already replaced? Put it back. Not yet lifted? Play it where it lies.
- You move it
- No penalty on the green — replace it
- Hitting another ball
- Two strokes in stroke play if both were on the green. No penalty in match play.
- Your line
- You may touch it. You may not improve it.
Written against the 2023 edition of the Rules of Golf, which remains the edition in force. The R&A has said the next full edition arrives 1 January 2028. Local Rules at your course can change any of this — the card and the notice board win.