Jimmy Walker admits to “backstopping” (not marking balls on the green)

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Up until now, "backstopping" has existed as a giant conspiracy theory, a collection of grainy screengrab videos that pop up from time to time on Twitter. In those clips, tour pros appear to purposely not mark their golf balls in order to give opponents a potential advantage, a safety net -- albeit small -- to slow down a shot containing too much pace. But as any lawyer knows, it's hard to prove intent. Unless someone admits to it. That's exactly what happened on Saturday when Jimmy Walker responded to such a video posted by longtime European and Australian Tour pro Mark Clayton. Clayton called "Ben An and John Huh helping each other" a "joke," but Walker didn't see the big deal and admitted to purposely not marking his ball in certain situations in a series of replies.

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Walker admitted to going as far as asking other players if they wanted him to mark his ball or not -- at least, to those he gives preferential treatment to based on friendship or fortune. On one hand, you could argue that Walker is showing good sportsmanship to his playing partners, but on the other, not protecting the rest of the field isn't fair.

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The rule in question here is 22-1, which says in part that "In stroke play, if the committee determines that competitors have agreed not to lift a ball that might assist any competitor, they are disqualified." Yep, pretty serious.

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