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Is giving advice the verbal equivalent of backstopping?

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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.

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Ronald Montesano writes for GolfWRX.com from western New York. He dabbles in coaching golf and teaching Spanish, in addition to scribbling columns on all aspects of golf, from apparel to architecture, from equipment to travel. Follow Ronald on Twitter at @buffalogolfer.

34 Comments

34 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. Dirty Dog Pervert

    Nov 9, 2019 at 8:18 am

    Nice cannons on that woman. I like em chunky.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Tiger

    Nov 7, 2019 at 8:34 pm

    GolfWrx class. Without fail.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. james

    Nov 7, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    One is against the rules and one is not…..I see no similarity.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. 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)

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. John

    Nov 7, 2019 at 3:34 pm

    Yes all I saw was that giant boob in the photo mashed up against the shoulder

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. 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.

  20. 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.

  21. 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…

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

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The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

  • 2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
  • 2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
  • 2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
  • 2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
  • 2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
  • 2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 LIV Adelaide betting preview: Cam Smith ready for big week down under

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After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide. 

For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.  

The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory. 

The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second. 

*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*

Past Winners at LIV Adelaide

  • 2023: Talor Gooch (-19)

Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami

Green in Regulation

  1. Richard Bland
  2. Jon Rahm
  3. Paul Casey

Fairways Hit

  1. Abraham Ancer
  2. Graeme McDowell
  3. Henrik Stenson

Driving Distance

  1. Bryson DeChambeau
  2. Joaquin Niemann
  3. Dean Burmester

Putting

  1. Cameron Smith
  2. Louis Oosthuizen
  3. Matt Jones

2024 LIV Adelaide Picks

Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)

When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.

At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.

The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.

Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)

Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.

In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.

For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

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Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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