A comment in JK's '100% wrong thread' about a dropped flagstick damaging a green, reminds me that a few years ago I was playing in a mixed foursomes social event when my lady partner fell on a muddy slope - it had been a very wet autumn. There was dreadful crack and something broke - her ankle as it turned out. For whatever reason there was not a normal, terrestrial ambulance to be sent, so an air ambulance was sent. It looked down on our course for a landing place and the steward's wife (our first aider) had the presence of mind to take the flagstick out at the 9th green. It landed, medical procedures were followed and after what must have been half an hour, the helicopter took off again. When I replaced the flagstick play resumed to that particular green. There was not a mark on it, and not the slightest deterioration in the putting surface. Dropping a flagstick would not damage a Wilmslow green!