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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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…
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