Flagstick

Today was the final day of the South India Ladies Golf. My Home Club Bangalore Golf Club, was hosting this tournament. Our Ladies section led by Uma Maney , ably assisted by Bina Sridhar and Suparna Mahesh organized the tournament very well. Hats off to them, all the more for the reason that this is their first major effort.
I was given the responsibility of conduct of the tournament proper as Tournament Director. I was ably supported by Dasharathy and Krishna Prasad.
Gowri Monga won the tournament hands down with hardly any challenge.The ladies were required to tee off from the mens tee, as our course was short.Some of our local girls found it really tough.
The tournament went off without any major Rules incidents. However, an innocuous incident on the 17th green needs to be reported.On this par 5 hole, Maher Atwal, related to our reputed Indian Golfer, Arjun Atwal,chipped from the edge of the green.The ball missed the hole narrowly by a few inches, went past the hole and was still moving when the caddie of Gurbani singh, a fellow competitor in the leader group, pulled out the flagstick. As I was the referee with the leader group, I had observed this incident and after completion of the hole, investigated further with the concerned players. It was established that the caddie was not authorized to attend the flagstick.As the ball was drifting slowly past the hole, he just pulled out the flagstick.
I have to resolve the issue if the fellow competitor-Gurbani Singh was in breach of Rule 17-2-a penalty of 2 strokes.This breach is one of the few instances where the fellow competitor incurs a penalty in stroke play.In most cases, he escapes with the status of outside agency. Rule 17-2 condones this breach, if it does not influence the movement of the ball. If the caddie had removed the flagstick, before it crossed the hole, Gurbani would have incurred 2 stroke penalty, as there was a chance for the ball to hit the flagstick.This view is also supported by decision 17-2/2.
This incident also reminds me of another flagstick ruling where the Junior champion Rashid Khan was involved in BPGC. I will post this separately, if not done already.