So our group is playing a course with average quality greens. One of the members of our foursome is going to end up shooting about 90 with about 3 dozen putts. He hits wedge to 15 feet, walks to the green, marks his ball and puts his ball in his pocket. Now other players are lining up their putts and walking around a bit to get a read on their own putt. One person mistakenly steps across the line of the guy at 15 feet because he does not see the marker. The guy gets real upset.

Seems like something like this happens about once per round. Different people, although usually the same personality type.

My first inclination is to say (or at least think) hey, do you really think that will affect your putt? My other observation is if you are not near the hole, you are better off to mark your ball, clean it, and put it back down on the green so that other people can more easily see where you are.

I'm not talking about stepping around the hole and not talking about short putts.

Do other people on this forum run into this situation?

Definitely one of those things that goes both ways.

If the guy honestly doesn't know and keeps making the same mistake, he needs to be politely reminded of what the etiquette dictates.

However, EVERYONE has mistakenly done it at some point in their life. Some patience with people is needed.

For the guys who go nuts for minor stuff like that, I'll usually remind them that Nick Faldo once said, "if you're so worried about all the reasons why you're going to miss the putt, you'll completely forget how to make it."

Personally, it doesn't bother me one iota when it happens.

I've seen more damage caused to greens by people pirouetting around in an effort to avoid stepping on snother player's line if I'm honest.

i hate when people get upset about others walking in their line...the foursome in front of you walked in your line 5 minutes ago

Unless there are blatant spike marks left what difference does it make? If the guy weighs 500 lbs I might care....

On this particular issue, it may be a big deal IF you are playing for money like in a pro or amateur tournament. Off-topic, I can proudly say that if someone gets to play a round with my 12-year-old daughter, you will feel as if you are playing in a pro tour just because of the way she was brought up on how to play the sport by the First Tee and me of course. :-)

I really don't care either.

I play a lot of golf late in the day when the sun is low and you can see in relief how many bumps and imperfections there are on a green. It's amazing we ever hole anything at all. One bump more isn't going to matter.

Bad putting rounds used to drive me crazy, but not any more- you can hit great putts that just don't go in (Pelz's lumpy donut). Friday night flights out from tour stops are full of guys that hit a bunch of great putts that didn't go in.

So true. I've been guilty of it a few times. Notice at the last second I may step in someone's line and I try to avoid it only to cause more damage to the green. I've had people do it to me, unintentionally and it doesn't really bother me but I don't assume others won't be bothered so I try to be as careful as possible.

It's really not hard to be aware of where you and 3 other guys are on the green.

I don't get too flustred in regular rounds....but in competitive rounds, walking in somebody's line is a BIG no-no.
In competitive rounds we are very aware of other players putting lines....
Often marking a ball we would like to finish (2 foot tap in) because we would be stepping on another player's line if we were to finish.

True enough the group ahead had walked all over the green...but in theory by the time you get to the green, the green has "bounced back" as it takes 7-10mins for it to do so. Not the case with stompy who just stepped on your line 5s ago.

As for it effecting the putt, the faster the greens...the more it effects. If you are putting on shag carpet and ram everything it's not going to matter. But on fast greens...it makes a big difference if you try and die the ball into the hole.

But regardless if it does or doesn't...it goes back to golf etiquette and common courtesy.

BTW as far as leaving your ball on the green so people know where you are...
Not the best idea as it either a) can distract a player during his putt, or more importantly b) should another player hit the ball on the green when putting...that player incurs a 2 stroke penalty.

I heard that stading on someones line will affect the green for around 30 seconds. So no big deal.

Actually, depending ong the condition of the green's surface ( type of grass, density of the grass, moisture, weight of the offender.....) I'd take a wild guess because the study was never conducted scientifically; the effect of influencing the putting line by stepping on it would last from under a minutes to perhaps a great deal longer.
I don't really go after a guy for stepping on my putting line, unless he's done it intentionally to up-set me ( I'll return the favor quietly).
It bothers me a lot more if someone don't tend the flag or return the flag stick after putted out first.
I just don't like free loaders of any kind.

hbear, your points are good but the original issue concerned longer lag putts. Personally, I get much more careful when balls are within 10 feet. I think if a person is distracted by a ball 20 feet from the hole, they are not real focussed. I also think that for an average player on average greens to think they are really so fine with their putting that a 3 minute old footprint is going to affect their 20 foot putt, they really are concerned with the wrong things.

Agree a player shouldn't be distracted with a ball 20 feet away, nor should most amatures on average greens worry about guys stepping on their line....but it's still courtesy to mark and avoid stepping in their line.

Totally agree, hbear. But when it does happen, maybe once per round in a 4 person group, no need for someone to get upset, as if the error is costing them a stroke.

there's only a couple courses in the area here where you'd really be entitled (still silly nonethless) to getting pissed if someone stepped on your line. we're not playing on tour-quality greens and i know i'm not that good of a putter to find any perceptible difference. i guess the one exception would be someone dragging their feet on purpose and i get more upset because they're tearing up the green -- not my line.

i think this argument is bunk. thank god i haven't met a single idiot who really gets burned by this.

i guess i've always thought that for every time a ball might deviate off line due to spike marks, there is a time when a spike mark might have actually helped me put the ball in the hole.

Although a spikemark may have helped a bad putt go in, I'd bet a spikemark has never helped a good putt go in....


In the end getting really pissed off on the golf course is crazy in the first place...
Especially for 99.9% of us that play for fun and not to put food on the table.

I make sure I use a visible ball marker and if someone does not have a marker near mine, I will put the ball marker down along with the ball behind it. That way when I go around reading the green I get a better feel for the green since my ball is there along with the ball marker.