Failure to hole out--Rule 3-2

Rule 3-2-Failure to hole out is very strictly applied in stroke play competition.The penalty for this breach is disqualification.Some players are unfortunate to incur this penalty of disqualification, though inadvertently.Many players fail to understand the definition of holing out and the correct procedure when the ball is nestling against the flagstick.
By definition, 'holed' means the ball must be at rest within the circumference of the hole and all of the ball should be below the level of the lip of the hole.
A few years back, Namith Gambhir, a budding young junior talent, was playing in an IGU sub junior event at BGC. His tee shot at the par 3, 10th hole was well short of the green. His chip hit the flagstick and resting against the flagstick, with half the ball inside the hole and the other half jutting out. Namith was ecstatic, thought he had a birdie.He ran and picked up his ball. The error was not pointed out at that time by his caddie or fellow competitors.He teed off from the next tee, without correcting the error and completed a few more holes.When the incident was brought to my notice later in the round,and investigations confirmed that the ball was half in and half out,I had no choice but to disqualify him.The correct procedure is detailed in Rule 17-4-Ball resting against the flagstick.In such cases, the player should move or remove the flagstick. If the ball falls into the hole, he is deemed to have holed out with his last stroke.Otherwise, if the ball is moved , it should be placed on the lip of the hole, without penalty and the hole should be completed.
If he has mistakenly picked the ball when it is not holed,the error must be corrected before teeing off from the next tee or in case of the last hole, before he leaves the putting green.The procedure is listed in Decision 17-4/1.The player incurs a penalty stroke under R 20-1 for lifting his ball without marking.The player must replace the ball against the flagstick and then apply R17-4.In the case of Namith Gambhir,if has done so before teeing off from the next tee, he could have scored a 3 or 4, if he had followed the procedure of R 17-4.