Identifying your golf ball

Some of you may be aware that Paul Lawrie and Carl Mason were disqualified from last week’s Farmfoods European Legends Links Championship at Trevose – after playing each other’s ball by mistake. They had similar personal markings on the same make of ball - a red dot!

The mistake occurred on the 5th hole, but they didn’t notice until the 7th tee.

Under Rule 6.3 - the penalty for playing the wrong ball in stroke play is a disqualification if the round has finished or a new hole has been started without the mistake having been corrected.

Rule 6.3a states that the player should put an identifying mark on the ball as it is one of the ways to identify a ball at rest - although not mandatory, it is good practice do so.

How do you uniquely identify your golf ball?