Lines on the golf ball is cheating?!

[Seth.Tunstall]

Recently watched a video on Jerome Rufin's Channel where he is attempting to go from never playing Golf to becoming scratch. He posts a lot of videos of him with instructors and one video he had a putting lesson with Derek Uyeda who is the coach for many tour guys. Derek made a comment that he doesn't think lines on the ball should be legal on tour saying if we cant have alignment sticks when we hit driver or iron shots then why can we have lines on the ball when we putt.

 

What do yall think about this and is there anything else in Golf that should be illegal? What is something you think should be legal that currently isn't?

[NM01]

The ruling bodies have no qualms about alignment lines on the ball or on clubs. There are also rules for what one can and can’t do for marks on a club so not a big issue with alignment lines on the ball.

 

[Seth.Tunstall]

1 hour ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

The ruling bodies have no qualms about alignment lines on the ball or on clubs. There are also rules for what one can and can’t do for marks on a club so not a big issue with alignment lines on the ball.

 

yea I don't think there is anything wrong with it. The Instructors comments just got me thinking about it!

[Dweed]

It's his opinion I guess. So for his "clients" on tour, does he not instruct them to use lines?

[Brooky03]

Well, technically, you could point that line where you want on the tee, too.  So his argument that you don't/can't have an aiming aid when hitting tee shots is invalid right out of the gate.

[jlowry22]

I feel like without removing logos for the ball there will always be some sort of alignment aid in general. On a side note, I feel like having a line on my ball hinders my game. It distracts me from actually thinking about pace, where the hole is, and the break.

[DaveP043]

On 4/26/2024 at 9:18 AM, Seth.Tunstall said:

Derek made a comment that he doesn't think lines on the ball should be legal on tour saying if we cant have alignment sticks when we hit driver or iron shots then why can we have lines on the ball when we putt.

I think there's a big difference between a 3-foot long alignment aid, and a "line" less than 2 inches long on a curved surface.   If that line is 1/16" off perfectly aligned, its going to be pointing at the woods!  

Separately, I don't see a workable rule that could outlaw all linear features on a golf ball without outlawing manufacturer's logos.