I'm generally confused by what happened here...

He broke the rule, as others above have pointed out. Nothing confusing about it .

Just another dumb golf rule....you can fix a pitch mark on the green but not off on say the fringe until your ball is on the putting green.
Same with it's ok to remove sand from the putting surface but you can't remove sand from the fringe if it's on your putting line.....a couple of lame/useless rules! IMO

darpar

You don't have 'putting line' ( ie line of putt) unless your ball is on the green.

Couple of Notes on and around the green.

One is not allowed to repair anything on one's line when off the green EXCEPT for ball marks and hole plugs that are on your green. A divot hole or unrepaired ball mark on the fringe or near the green should be left as is until you have completed the hole. Then go back and replace the divot or flatten the pitch mark.

An exception is made for repairs made which are very unlikely to affect play. For example, you are 100 yards away and waiting for the green to clear. I

" Nevertheless, you'll occasionally come across spike marks on the green and be tempted to press them down. DON'T: That act constitutes a two-stroke penalty."

You can remove loose impediments. Things such as sand, soil, stones, twigs, insects, and goose droppings. You can remove these things any way you want, provided you don't press anything down into the turf or test the surface.

You can repair those little craters created when a ball hits the green.

You can repair old hole plugs created when the superintendent's staff move the cup from location to another.

You can place your putter down in front of your ball when you address it (remember, don't press down).

You can touch the line in the process of measuring, lifting or replacing your ball or to remove a moveable
obstruction such as a coin left on the green by the group in front of you.

Once you putt out, provided you aren't aiding a fellow competitor with his or her putt, you can tap down spike marks, fix a damaged hole (sometimes a part of the circumference caves in) or push the hole liner back down (they sometimes get pulled up when the flagstick is removed.

mcavoy that waldorf one was Rediculous imo, he basically tamped down the edge of an old divot in front and to the right of his ball....if he hits it over that divot he misses the green by 50 yds, bht gets called for a penalty. No common sense in that ruling.

This one I'm nit so sure.

Sometimes we look at rules based on how we perceive them. But the rules aren't established on perceptions of intent or incidentals. They are established to account for the occasional gray areas... those situations where perhaps tapping down a pitch mark from the fringe 20 feet away from your ball lying in the fringe could be legitimately confused with the perceived liberty for someone else to suddenly tap down all pitch marks in the fringe, including the one that might be two inches in front of their ball.

I hate playing from a divot in the fairway, but I understand why they're not considered ground-under-repair and must be played as it lies. The definition of what does or does not constitute a divot suddenly has to be factored in and explained, and there would undoubtedly be incidents of doubt whether a spot in the fairway was from an old divot that hasn't fully grown in or just a natural depression of the soil.

ode

You will see that the wording of the decision has been revised. It wouldn't happen now.

fnufan thank goodness....this is just an opn so take it fwiw, but I think the usga is going to be doing this for years upon years, that is revise rules that are too complicated and mandate penalties for infractions for things that were never the intent of the rule to penalize...vs. simply using common sense....for crissakes, the usga referenced the Waldorf incident in their notes with a pic as an example of an infraction of the rule.

PIGDivot Don't touch/repair the pitch mark until you've played your shot. The kid didn't.