Marking Your Golf Ball: Does It Really Matter?

Did you know that you are supposed to mark your ball? It should have an unique identifier that would allow you to recognize your ball in any situation. In fact, you should communicate anytime you change balls or change marks. But of course... who cares

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Anyway, what I recommend you is that if you are actually going to mark your ball you should do it with a purpose... let me elaborate

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How pros mark their ball?

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I decided to use the LPGA example because we all know women usually have a more artistic side to them than men. See below an image from Titleist that shows how 35 LPGA golfers mark their ball.

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Golf Ball Marks how pros mark their golf ball

You will notice that there are some artistic ones and some purposeful ones. Let me elaborate on that?

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Does it really matter how I mark my ball?

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Well it really depends on what kind of player you are. You can use your mark in three different ways: 1) Alignment, 2) Instruction and 3) Inspiration. However, it is also true that some golfers won't get any benefit from any of this. And in fact there is no way to proof that this will improve your performance or for that matter your golf handicap.

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I never used to mark my ball, but I have always positioned my ball on the green in a way that I can use the alignment line to align my putts. So I have never really needed to mark it for alignment.

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Recently I have started marking it for inspiration/motivation. I now always write down my best score ever (74) which serves as a reminder of how good I can be sometimes, even though most of the time I suck.