Here’s the scenario: You have a monster long putt from the other side of a sloping green and you elect to leave the pin in as a marker (as you are entitled to do under The Rules).
Your putt is tracking the whole way, and it looks dead set to be an amazing hole-out. Then, at the very last moment, the ball turns its nose up at the hole and comes to rest just an inch from the lip.
The ball has taken so long to travel across the green that you’ve followed it halfway during its journey. You reach the flag before any of your playing partners.
Without really thinking, you pull the flagstick out of the cup with one hand and, while still holding it above the ground, you tap it in with your putter using your other hand.
What happens in that scenario? Were you allowed to do that? Should you have been penalised?
Well, the simple answer to that question is, no!
It’s covered by Rule 13.2 and, more specifically by clarification 13.2b(1)/1 – It says that, a player may make a one-handed stroke while holding the flagstick with the other hand, provided they don’t use the flagstick to steady themselves.
So, in the instance above, you would have faced no penalty.
But if you had removed the flagstick, pressed it into the green and leaned on it as you tapped in, you would have broken Rule 4.3, an improper use of equipment, and would be penalised the general penalty – two shots in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.
It’s fine then to tap a putt in while holding the flagstick above the ground.
But you wouldn’t be allowed to move the flagstick into a more preferable position within the hole as you tapped in. The player in the picture may be about to remove it completely, which would be fine. But it looks like he might be bending it to create a buffer for the ball. If the latter were the case, he would be in trouble.
Rule 13.2a says you must not try to gain an advantage by deliberately moving the flagstick to a position other than centred in the hole. If you were to hold the flagstick in such a way and the ball then hit the flagstick, you would receive the general penalty.
It’s one to be careful of. It’s fine to hold the flagstick above ground and tap in, but not fine to either rest on the flagstick as you tap in or manipulate the flagstick in the hole to an off-centre position. It’s a good Rule to be aware of.
