USGA RULE 17-1; NOTE 1

Question
Please clarify Note 1 of rule 17-1 with an illustration to help my friend.  I was near a flag and a person was putting from the fringe and I pulled the flag and he starting complaining that I should not have pulled the flag because he had not asked me to attend it.

Answer
Leon,

First of all I didn't receive the illustration.

Note 1: If the flagstick is in the hole and anyone stands near it while a stroke is being made, he is deemed to be attending the flagstick.

17-2. Unauthorized Attendance
If an opponent or his caddie in match play or a fellow-competitor or his caddie in stroke play, without the player's authority or prior knowledge, attends, removes or holds up the flagstick during the stroke or while the ball is in motion, and the act might influence the movement of the ball, the opponent or fellow-competitor incurs the applicable penalty.
*Penalty for Breach of Rule 17-1 or 17-2:
Match play - Loss of hole; Stroke play - Two strokes.
*In stroke play, if a breach of Rule 17-2 occurs and the competitor's ball subsequently strikes the flagstick, the person attending or holding it or anything carried by him, the competitor incurs no penalty. The ball is played as it lies, except that if the stroke was made on the putting green, the stroke is canceled and the ball must be replaced and replayed.

Basically it would be a call for the rules committee or your PGA golf Professional. The easiest way to avert this situation in the future is to communicate. Opponent " would you like the flagstick attended"? Player "could you attend the flagstick"?

This will keep you two as friends.

Thanks,

Michael