If your opponent is playing several shots in vain attempts to extricate himself from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes. It would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by applying his niblick to your head.

Vardon’s quip is a piece of early-20th-century golf humor that doubles as etiquette instruction. The situation—an opponent repeatedly failing to escape a bunker—was common enough to be recognizable, and Vardon frames the onlooker’s temptation to needle the struggling player (by counting strokes aloud) as both bad manners and needlessly provocative. The exaggerated punchline (“justifiable homicide”) underscores how humiliation and frustration can boil over, while the specific club named, the niblick (a lofted iron used for sand and rough), anchors the joke in period golf practice. The larger point is sportsmanship: restraint and empathy are part of the game, especially when a rival is already suffering.