You’re looking at a testing putt with a little left to right break. You spy something on your intended line and think it would be about the right spot to aim at.
On closer inspection you realise it’s the edge of an old hole plug which has slightly raised from the rest of the surface. That raised edge could possibly deflect your ball.
What are your options under the Rules? Do you have to grin and bear it? Will you have to putt around it? Or are you allowed to repair that raised edge to smooth your route?
Well, the answer to that question and to the question in the headline can be found in Rule 13.1c – Improvements Allowed on Putting Green.
And the answer to the question – “My playing partner repaired an old hole plug on the line of their putt and tapped it down. Is that a penalty?” Is… No. It’s not a penalty… probably. We’ll come on to the caveats.
Basically though, in Rule 13.1c(2) it is described how a player may repair damage to the putting green without penalty by taking reasonable action to restore the putting green as nearly as possible to its original condition.
“Damage” is described as being, any damage caused by anyone (including the player) or an outside influence and examples of “damage” are given.
One of those examples is – “Old hole plugs.”
So, there is no penalty for repairing and tapping down an old hole plug on the line of a putt.
However – To repair “damage” a player may only use – hand, foot or other part of the body, a normal ball-mark repair tool, tee or similar item of normal equipment.
If your playing partner produced a trowel, or a golf hole punching device and set about excavating the entire section of green to rebuild it to his or her liking, it would be deemed they were taking actions that exceeded “reasonable” in order to restore the putting green to its original state.
In that instance, they would face the general penalty (two shots in stroke play or loss of hole in match play) for breaking Rule 8.1a (improving the conditions affecting the stroke.)
Also, if the repair process went on too long – say they laboriously worked at the edge of the old hole plug like an archaeologist at a dig and five minutes later were still picking away at it. That would be deemed “unreasonably delaying play,” breaking Rule 5.6a – Again they would incur the general penalty.
As long as your playing partner did not take unreasonable actions to repair the hole plug and did not take too long for the repair job, they would have faced no penalty for repairing it and tapping it down.
