Been advised to post this here.

Question: A person places a club on the ground on the fairway and lines it up to the hole. They then position their feet against the club on the ground. They then PICK the club up off the fairway and proceed to hit the ball with it.

This action is allowed.

8-2a/1 Club Placed on Ground to Align Feet

Q. A player places a club on the ground parallel to the line of play to assist him in aligning his feet properly. Is this permissible?

A. Yes, provided the player removes the club before playing his stroke. Otherwise, a breach of Rule 8-2a would occur.

Thanks Doc, That’s how I read the rule.

Would hope they don,t do this every shot or slow play could become a problem. Have seen this before & player involved had to change his routine because of the time factor.Good for practice ,not so good in a competition situation.

after a number of times doing that routine, you’d hope that you’d naturally start to allign correctly.

Told ya you would get a good answer ;-) What happens if they place a leaf or any other loose impediment (I believe that is quite a golf savvy term) on their target line to help their swing and don’t move it? (P.s. Sorry for the hi-jack).

Same answer. Anything placed to indicate his line must be removed before the stroke is made. 2 stroke penalty

If the object was already there it may be left.

So if a the player marked his line of play by striking the ground in front of his ball with his club creating sort of “hole”, he incurs a two-stroke penalty? (since he did not replaced the “hole”)....

Correct

Saw Sergio Garcia in last years Open on a mound in the long rough taking a practice swing in front of his ball. The commentators discussed whether he should be penalized for improving his line of play,the answer was no as he had done it some distance in front of his ball.

So if a the player marked his line of play by striking the ground in front of his ball with his club creating sort of “hole”, he incurs a two-stroke penalty? (since he did not replaced the “hole”)....

You know how you see players make their own tees by digging the club into the ground and raising the turf, is that allowed?

Does not make you popular with Greenkeepers but there is nothing in the rules to prevent it as long as you do not mark the line of play in any way.

The Rules (Rules 11-1) allow the player to create an irregularity on the teeing ground and use it as a tee.
Laura Davis has been doing it for years.

Perhaps she can’t bend far enough to put a tee in the ground ;)

I’m sorry I mentioned Laura. She’s a nice person.

Who said Laura isn’t a nice person? :-)