Ball-marking revisited on windy Masters day

With high winds sweeping up many of the Thursday storylines, ball-marking became a revisited topic as players were forced to be careful on Augusta National Golf Club’s greens.

The issue of marking a ball was a hot topic early in Masters Week after Lexi Thompson’s lead disappeared because of a viewer’s email to the rules committee at the ANA Inspiration. The viewer sent notice to LPGA officials that Thompson incorrectly marked her ball the day before, and she eventually lost the major.

Several Masters Tournament players were asked about the Thompson situation early in the week, including Phil Mickelson, who was perhaps the most candid regarding the topic of ball-marking.

“I know a number of guys on tour that are loose with how they mark the ball and have not been called on it,” Mickelson said Tuesday. “I mean, they will move the ball two, three inches in front of their mark, and this is an intentional way to get it out of any type of impression and so forth, and I think that kind of stuff needs to stop.”

No rules issues were reported Thursday, but with wind gusts past 20 mph and similar conditions expected today, players backing off the ball, waiting on the wind to settle or handling their ball like a fragile piece of glass are common sights.

“A couple times the ball was oscillating. I don’t know how to spell oscillating, but I heard people say that, so I think it was definitely moving a little bit,” Russell Henley said to laughter.

Henley said the green elevation affected which holes were more difficult to mark a ball or keep one in place.

“A couple times on the more exposed ones, so when you get a little higher up on the higher greens on the course, you can get those gusts and see the ball moving a little bit,” Henley said.

No. 9 was one of those holes. The green sits at one of the course’s highest spots and is exposed to wind gusts. The group of Fred Couples, Paul Casey and Kevin Na was seen backing off balls and standing for a period of time.

Adam Scott had similar issues at No. 14. A severe gust coupled with a slope pushed his ball from three feet away to nine feet, causing Scott to stand to the side and cross his arms behind his back.

When he finally stood over the ball, he rolled it in for par.

“I would have liked to have putted better from six to 10 feet, but it’s very difficult when the wind is blowing really hard and you don’t have complete control over the golf ball,” Scott said.

Reach David Lee at (706) 823-3216 or david.lee@augustachronicle.com.