Cleaning a Ball

Question
The ball falls on a muddy drain in the rough adjacent to the green. Player strikes the ball out of the drain but the ball is almost engulfed with mud all around it. Now if the player chips the ball on the green, it will not roll at all or very little or roll to another direction. Is it permissible to clean the ball?

Answer
Once on the green, you can clean a ball at any point until you reset the ball down on the green without a marker.

When the ball is on a drain, that is a man made lie, so you can drop to nearest point of relief and are allowed to clean it before placing it on the new lie.

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