Opinion & Analysis
Is giving advice the verbal equivalent of backstopping?
I have a quick take for you: giving advice is the verbal equivalent of backstopping. The idea came out of a back-and-forth with a great golf mind (@scramblergolf on Twitter), but the idea coalesced in my head.
Here’s my proof:
- Caddies and players make no effort to impede competitors from looking at the bag, to determine what club their own golfer played (usually on a par three hole)
- Caddies and players make no effort to slow down play, enough to let a golfer approach the green and mark a golf ball that might prove to be a backstop.
That’s it. Pretty simple, huh? Both are poorly-kept (if at all) secrets that announcers, ironically, view in different ways. On-course reporters and tower heads depend on caddies to flash them a number of fingers, indicating the number of club that was played. Do these on-air mouths think for one second that they are the only ones who see the signal? And yet, self-righteously, those same announcers leap to decry the current practice of backstopping.
I’ve news for you, talking heads: these are the same broken rule, committed in different manners.
The professional tours allow each to happen with tacit approval. Why? It’s hard to penalize, even harder than determining if the neo-long putters are anchored or not (which is another stupid rule—but don’t get me off on a tangent.)
The tours hate conflict. Remember when Miguel Angel Jimenez and Keegan Bradley almost duked it out, over Bradley’s drop and caddie interference? Sawgrass doesn’t want NASCAR, MMA, or even the NFL. Kill’em with decorum, they might as well print, instead of Live Under Par.
Well, ignore for a moment Christina Kim’s true motives (which none of us knows) for calling penalties on competitors at Q-School.
Instead, look at the reaction of the golf community.
Kim is vilified for bringing the matter to Twitter before it went to the media. Too bad, media. Sometimes we get scooped. Guess what this calumny does? It takes our attention away from the infraction, and moves it to the interpersonal relationships. Those are fodder for gossip rags, but not for golf fans and members of the business community. The only thing that matters is that golfers from Dustin Johnson to Kendall Dye, have admitted that they don’t always know the rules. Not knowing the rules, unless you are a paladin, encourages one to moan about being wronged by a draconian code.
Spare me. TV golf announcers, stop asking for a handout. Professional golfers, stop backstopping. Professional caddies, stop giving out club information.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
‘Why would anybody want to change that swing?’ – Brandel Chamblee says PGA Tour star was wrong to change his swing
‘The stupidest freaking thing I’ve ever heard’ – Billy Horschel slams Open idea suggested by Padraig Harrington
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Golfer proudly posts photo of ball mark on iron, receives immediate roasting
WITB Time Machine: Matthew Wolff’s winning WITB, 2019 3M Open
Oakmont Country Club bans Wyndham Clark over locker incident; Reveals specific conditions to earn reinstatement
Adam Scott puts Callaway blades in the bag at Wyndham Championship
Report: LIV star fires caddie and coach in shock shake up
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’
The championship formula: How 3 key stats separate winners from the field
Peter Malnati WITB 2025 (August)
Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
Camilo Villegas WITB accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. Villegas was undecided on a 3-wood when we shot his bag. ...
WITB Time Machine: Brandt Snedeker’s winning WITB, 2018 Wyndham Championship
Brandt Snedeker fired a final-round 65 at the 2018 Wyndham Championship to outlast Webb Simpson and C.T. Pan. His 5-under...
JCGolf
Nov 9, 2019 at 10:40 am
This article is dumb. Proudly announcing to the world that you hit a 9 iron isn’t against the rule. My partner asking me which club i hit is against the rules. There’s a difference.
Dirty Dog Pervert
Nov 9, 2019 at 8:18 am
Nice cannons on that woman. I like em chunky.
Blackbart65
Nov 8, 2019 at 10:47 am
In response to the headline question, no, giving advice is worse, because it is clearly illegal, based on the rules of golf.
Tom
Nov 8, 2019 at 9:52 am
Calling that “advice” is a bit of a stretch. “I hit an 8-iron” is not the same thing as “I think you should hit an 8-iron”. It’s the same as making an observation about the course or course conditions – which is allowed under the rule, as they are not considered advice.
Mark it Zero
Nov 7, 2019 at 9:08 pm
+1. Forgive me, but I have to admit that was the first thing that caught my eye. Flame away.
Tiger
Nov 7, 2019 at 8:34 pm
GolfWrx class. Without fail.
ChipNRun
Nov 7, 2019 at 7:22 pm
From the story:
____________________
* Caddies and players make no effort to slow down play, enough to let a golfer approach the green and mark a golf ball that might prove to be a backstop.
_______________
These are the same caddies and players who will get put “on the clock” if they drop more than a hole behind the group ahead. So, tour players should play fast… but not too fast?
And, as WEBSTER noted, the iron one hits doesn’t tell us much… trap draw, three-quarters swing has a big impact on distance.
Must have been a “slow news day” in R-land.
Webster
Nov 7, 2019 at 6:17 pm
Why does it even matter really? Pro A and Pro B are most likely playing different irons and even if they did they most likely don’t hit them the same distance. And even then player B has to ascertain how player A chose to hit the shot; full, take a hair off, a punch, trap draw, etc. And after all that they then have to try and come up with how that relates to their own clubs/swing.
james
Nov 7, 2019 at 5:33 pm
One is against the rules and one is not…..I see no similarity.
Simple
Nov 7, 2019 at 5:30 pm
I might have a different approach here, but I don’t understand why it’s a big deal. You can shove the iron sole into a camera, show that it’s a 6-iron, show everyone, but as long as you don’t verbally say “six”, you’re within the rules.
It’s rubbish. It should be DISCOURAGED to ask your opponent what they played. It should be against the Rules to actively attempt to ascertain information that has not been easily shared. But if you say “whadya hit?” and you say “8”, that should not be a breech. If you say “whadya hit” and you shrug, that’s that. It’s etiquette that that point.
JAMES
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:48 pm
If I’m a pro caddie and I’m hand signaling the tower what club my guy/gal is hitting on a par 3 I’m flashing the tower 2 clubs less. If the opponent is stupid enough to rely on this info then he/she can suffer the surprise when they hit their shot into the water in front of the green.
JThunder
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:18 pm
We’re in a era where many people care more about their “social media presence” than they do about rules, objectivity and even consequences. This is true from the top office in the land on down. The “court of public opinion” has become the kangaroo court of the anonymous internet. This does not serve us as a society or race.
Unfortunately, those who could curb this downward spiral are equally addicted to the illusion of social media, so will likely say or do nothing except stoke the virtual flames. Ultimately a waste of time for all involved. (And yes, this includes comments sections on articles)
Dan
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:12 pm
This is an unenforceable rule because caddies are always flashing fingers to on-course staff and nearby players. Otherwise we (tv viewers) cannot know which club is being used. On same day two got penalties, there were other 70 violators in the field who did not get a penalty for doing the same thing.
Dale
Nov 7, 2019 at 3:53 pm
Which club being used is not a secret at any mean. Therefore, no one really cared about enforcing the rule in this context. Sure, the players and caddies know the rule. That’s why they use gestures. But, it was such a moot point that no one cared including the rule officials. Otherwise every player whose caddy ever flashed fingers to on-course staff should be disqualified!
In NY, there is an old law that no one cared about. So, even today there is actually a law that makes it illegal to have Anal Sex. That’s right. There is an actual legislature about it. Is it being enforced? Of course not. Does breaking that rule make you a criminal?
Kim protected nothing. Only thing she did was to report the fellow players and cost them Tour card and gained a few days of attention for herself in return, which she is clearly enjoying.
chip75
Nov 7, 2019 at 3:41 pm
It’s not against the rules to look in another player’s bag, but it is against the rules to ask. It’s like the difference between asking a playing partner the yardage from a bunker and your ball, one is okay the other is against the rules.
Surprised that any professional would not know the rule.
John
Nov 7, 2019 at 3:34 pm
Yes all I saw was that giant boob in the photo mashed up against the shoulder
larrybud
Nov 7, 2019 at 1:35 pm
Advice is much worse than backstopping. If players were so accurate that they could take advantage of backstopping, then they’d try to hit the hole instead of the other player’s ball.
Advice helps immediately
Moosejaw McWilligher
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:11 pm
Moreover, a golf ball is much smaller than the hole. Backstopping is not desirable but it’d hard to see it as much more than chance.
Dshepley
Nov 7, 2019 at 11:50 am
Who cares if they ask what club was hit? Maybe it will speed the game up if it is allowed. The information would only be useful if the player asking knew how far the other player hits their clubs, was it hit full, 3/4, solid strike….the information isn’t tremendously useful anyway given that the player still has to hit a shot.
Scrambler
Nov 7, 2019 at 12:47 pm
Agree completely. Knowing the club number is barely any more information than knowing the yardage (which is allowed to be shared). You also have loft variances between club manufacturers. There’s no significant advantage and there’s already many ways that sharing / obtaining the club is allowed (speaking out loud with your caddie, looking in competitor bag, reading signals to TV personnel).
It’s not even close to backstopping, which has the very real possibility of affecting the result of a stroke (even helping a poor one). The only similarity is that both are technically rule violations with inconsistent non-enforcement.
The former should be assessed whether it continues to be a meaningful rule (no real advantage / allowed methods of circumventing it), while the latter makes sense because there’s an advantage as a basis for the rule.
Kevin
Nov 7, 2019 at 3:14 pm
DShepley – I agree completely. Knowing the club number is barely any more information than knowing the yardage (which is allowed to be shared). You also have loft variances between club manufacturers. There’s no significant advantage and there’s already many ways that sharing / obtaining the club is allowed (speaking out loud with your caddie, looking in competitor bag, reading signals to TV personnel).
It’s not even close to backstopping, which has the very real possibility of affecting the result of a stroke (even helping a poor one). The only similarity is that both are technically rule violations with inconsistent non-enforcement.
The former should be assessed whether it continues to be a meaningful rule (no real advantage / allowed methods of circumventing it), while the latter makes sense because there’s an advantage as a basis for the rule.
Rich Douglas
Nov 7, 2019 at 9:52 am
Kim protected the field, which is her responsibility. She held off with the call until the end of the round in case she was wrong; she didn’t want to have a false accusation affect the golfers’ play.
Kim should be acknowledged and thanked for her actions.
The other two? The player and caddie committed a rules infraction. They didn’t cheat, they broke a rule. It’s over.
Scratchscorer
Nov 7, 2019 at 10:29 am
Exactly. It’s a rule that comes with a penalty, not cheating. You can break rules anytime and accept the penalties for them. That’s not cheating any more than a shooting foul is cheating in basketball or pass interference is cheating in football. Couldn’t agree with you more.
Keith
Nov 7, 2019 at 3:17 pm
She actually reported it when it happened, but the rules official had no idea it was a rule. Neither did the other players. That is why she reported it at the scoring table. It is also why she went to Twitter to urge everyone, especially rules officials, to actually know the rules.
Bob
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:06 pm
It’s just what club being used is not a secret at any mean!! The rules official had no idea because it was a common practice. Kim literally saw it being done many many times in her career. On Kim’s theory, Kim should be disqualified forever for not reporting it 100 times before.
Either Kim decided to use it as an excuse to screw two fellow players including an innocent player. Or, she always hated this common practice because she never did it herself but everyone was doing it.
Then the burning question is.. when she saw the caddies flashing fingers to on-course staffs and nearby players, why did she never report those players before? She literally saw this being done over 1000 times in her career!!
Moosejaw McWilligher
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Players are penalized for not knowing rules. I hope the rules official was somehow penalized for his/her role in the debacle.
Joey5Picks
Nov 7, 2019 at 4:21 pm
Where did you read that she reported at the time, but the official didn’t know it was a rule? I haven’t seen that in any of the stories I’ve read and find that hard to believe.
matt
Nov 7, 2019 at 9:04 am
First of all backstopping is not controversial outside of this website. Good on you if you can get a little lucky – god knows there are enough tough bounces in the game. And do not slow up play whatever you do.
As for not concealing a club selection on a par 3, I hardly find that to be “giving advice.” Not to mention as a competitive player for over 20 year, including D1 college golf – knowing what others hit is probably more detrimental than helpful. Maybe on tour where they know each others yardages so well, but still. You have to know how the player struck the ball (which is impossible to know without asking), what they intended to do with it flight-wise and spin-wise. All things that shouldn’t be consuming your thoughts when you’re better off committing to your own strategy and shot.
joe
Nov 7, 2019 at 8:47 am
Time to cut out eating cheese and diet cokes. Gads. I wonder if she’s seen that photo of herself?
Rich Douglas
Nov 7, 2019 at 9:49 am
You mean the one where she’s a professional golfer and your not?
James
Nov 7, 2019 at 11:25 am
Is that supposed to be some sort of comeback? She hits a ball to entertain others for a living. Not even close to a productive activity.
JD
Nov 7, 2019 at 10:48 am
Take the time it took to think and type that, and try doing something useful with it next time.
Scrambler
Nov 7, 2019 at 12:53 pm
Alex – I’ll take “idiotic things men say to ensure women know they’re losers” for $400.
Mt
Nov 9, 2019 at 8:37 pm
Haha…I’ll take guess my bra size for 2 hundo…