Tamping down behind the ball on a tee box

Has anyone encountered this, what seems to be a rules violation, ritual in another? This weekend, I went out as a single and got paired up with another single and a two some.  One of the guys in the twosome had habit of tamping down the grass behind his teed-up ball.  Every time on the tee box, he would place his ball on a tee, and then proceeded to tamp down the grass behind it. I know if the ball is in play, that is against the rules, but I thought it was a rather strange ritual on a tee box. We are talking about serious tamping down so that the grass now lies flat.

I have also seen the opposite. Laura Davies used to take a sand wedge to the tee and chop up a chuck of turf to tee her ball on rather than using a wooden tee.

I have never played on a tee box where the grass was tall enough, to even consider tapping it down. I don't know the rule on this but unless he is not using a tee and hitting off the ground. I don't see how it could benefit him?

You must not get around to all the fine dog tracks out there.  I played a course where the grass on the tee was so tall and soft I couldn't get a standard length tee at the height I prefer for hitting my driver. Wound up having to hit a bit down on the driver all day.

I do it. Just depends, I feel like you can improve your lie slightly, so why not. I mean, there is a reason you're not allowed to do it in the fairway... So why not take advantage of it when you can, legally?

Has anyone encountered this, what seems to be a rules violation, ritual in another?

This weekend, I went out as a single and got paired up with another single and a two some.  One of the guys in the twosome had habit of tamping down the grass behind his teed-up ball.  Every time on the tee box, he would place his ball on a tee, and then proceeded to tamp down the grass behind it.

I know if the ball is in play, that is against the rules, but I thought it was a rather strange ritual on a tee box.

We are talking about serious tamping down so that the grass now lies flat.

So what is the advantage if your driver never hits the ground behind the ball?

Oh, I was talking about irons mostly. I rarely do it for my driver. Only if I'm teeing it really low or something would I do it with a driver... Even then rarely.

But I definitely like to do it with irons, especially long irons.

3-2. Improving Lie, Area of Intended Stance or Swing, or Line of Play

However, the player incurs no penalty if the action occurs:

in grounding the club lightly when addressing the ball,

in fairly taking his stance,

in making a stroke or the backward movement of his club for a stroke and the stroke is made,

in creating or eliminating irregularities of surface within the teeing ground or in removing dew, frost or water from the teeing ground, or

on the putting green in removing sand and loose soil or in repairing damage (Rule 16-1).