2008 #8 How to ID Your Ball

The Scene:
Your ball is lying in a bunker. You have marked all of your balls with one small red dot for identification purposes. But now that red dot is not visible. So, you lift the ball, make sure it is yours, replace it and hit it out of the bunker. But another player challenges you. She says, “Hey, wait just one minute. That’s a one-stroke penalty.”

What Would You do?
A. You are allowed to lift your ball in a hazard if that is necessary to identify it. So she is wrong.
B. There is a procedure that you must follow when lifting a ball you think is yours for the purpose if identifying it. You didn’t follow that procedure. So you incurred a penalty of one stroke.

B is correct
This is new. Up until January 1st, 2008, you couldn’t lift your ball in a bunker to identify it. So this procedure was not needed. The procedure is the same one used anywhere on the course when you need to identify your ball, except on the green. It is described in the following rule:

Rule 12-2.
…Before lifting the ball, the player must announce his intention to his opponent in match play or his marker or a fellow-competitor in stroke play and mark the position of the ball. He may then lift the ball and identify it, provided that he gives his opponent, marker or fellow-competitor an opportunity to observe the lifting and replacement. The ball must not be cleaned beyond the extent necessary for identification when lifted under Rule 12-2.
If the ball is the player’s ball and he fails to comply with all or any part of this procedure, or he lifts his ball in order to identify it when not necessary to do so, he incurs a penalty of one stroke.

REMEMBER: Before lifting a ball you think is your own, announce your intention, mark your ball, and then lift it while allowing the other players to watch.