Every month former MGA Senior Director of Rules and Competitions Gene Westmoreland will answer one question posed by the readers of the MGA e-Revision Newsletter (click here to sign up). Joe from Suffolk County asked Gene the following Rules question:

Q: This question comes from Ed Donohue in Yonkers, N.Y.: When a player decides to use his putter for a shot from off the green, can he brush off anything on his line of putt that is also off the green?

Gene responds:

You are permitted to move loose impediments and movable obstructions that may be on your line—loose impediments like leaves or twigs; movable obstructions like a bunker rake or cigarette butt. You cannot smooth out irregularities on the ground, and should keep in mind that sand is not a loose impediment unless it lies on the green.

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