Jimmy Walker Keeps It Real Giving His Thoughts On Backstopping On The PGA TOUR

Backstopping has been more obvious this year on the PGA Tour then in years past.

This probably isn’t the kind of argument the PGA Tour wants its fans having all over social media to #GrowTheGame or #LiveUnderPar, but here we are; let’s talk about backstopping.

The subject came up on Twitter yet again on Saturday when Jimmy Walker replied to a video posted by Michael Clayton showing John Huh electing not to mark his ball inches from the hole and letting Ben An chip up, ultimately giving him a backstop.

For those that don’t know what the rule would be in this situation should the ball hit the unmarked ball, the player who hit the sitting ball plays from where their ball ended up, while the player who didn’t mark gets to replace their ball to its original spot without a penalty.

Walker’s reply to the video was pretty perfect, and definitely honest, basically saying if you don’t like the guy you go mark the ball regardless of the situation:

I don’t really understand how anyone could really argue Walker’s point here. Even if it’s some weekend match at your home club you’ll mark the ball 99% of the time and 100% of the time if you don’t like the person you’re playing. If it’s a casual round, that’s different, but let’s not forget that this is the PGA Tour, you know, where guys play for hundreds of thousands of dollars each week.

The biggest argument for those in favor of not marking a ball like that for pitch shots and chip shots is that it speeds up play. Sure, it might speed up play by something like seven seconds, but let’s not act like this situation happens 12 times a round between groups or something.

Rule 22-1 relates to ball assisting play stating “in stroke play, if the Committee determines that competitors have agreed not to lift a ball that might assist any competitor, they are disqualified.”

We’ll never see this sort of situation during a major or coming down the stretch, but it is a topic of discussion all over the Twittershphere and it’s nice to see Walker keep it real when giving his thoughts about the situation.