Here's an interesting question - I played in a tournament for GCAT where it rained a lot. As such we were playing LCAP in the fairway and there were a lot of plugged lies elsewhere. Now -- This guy hits his tee shot way right into the rough. It plugs. Without letting us know, he lifts the ball out of the hole to identify it, and puts it back after we call him on it (the ball is already out of the plug mark and he's pretty much destroyed the lie and loosened the plug-ness around it.

Here's the question: Rule 12-2 states that the player must announce his intentions to lift and identify the ball before doing so and give his opponent or marker a chance to observe the lifting and replacement. When i asked the "rules official" i.e. "guy that volunteered and got an embroidered shirt" he said that the nature of the rules of golf allowed him to do so and he didn't have to. IMO this was BLATANTLY wrong. Am i incorrect? The guy SHOULD have gotten a 1 stroke penalty on that hole but didn't.

Totally agree - you MUST call over your playing partners to verify that the ball was embedded. 1 shot penalty...