Glenn:
There is obviously something very fundamental you need to understand about the two different formats of golf--eg MATCH play vs STROKE play.
In match play golf it is the absolute "right" within the context and priniciples of MATCH PLAY golf that a "player" be able to know the STATE of his match at any point against his "opponent".
The same principle most certainly does not exist in stroke play golf, which include stroke play playoffs for match play. You need to appreciate what the entirely different "principles" between the two formats really mean, and to what extent they go.
These days, when information dispersion is far more available than it has ever been before some people assume that a "competitor" in stroke play---and very much including a STROKE play playoff for MATCH play has every right under the principles of golf to know the state of his competition against all other stroke play competitors.
Such a concept and "right" simply does not exist in either the principles of stroke play golf or in the Rules of Golf as they relate to STROKE play golf.
It will always be that way and it will always be fundamentally different from MATCH play golf where under the principles of the Rules of Golf and the actual Rules of Golf the "player" always has a RIGHT to know the state of his match against his "opponent". Neither the wording nor the concept of the "opponent" exists in stroke play golf and that's why those that stroke play competitors play against in STROKE play are called "fellow competitors" and not "opponents".
I realize you will probably not accept this important distinction between the two formats of golf and argue that it shouldn't be this way, and that all stroke play "competitors" have a right to know how they stand against all their "fellow competitors", and if they don't there is something UNFAIR about it, but that's the way it's always been and the way it always will be as it relates to a stroke play.
Basically a stroke play "competitor" has no such "right" under the principles of the Rules of Golf or the Rules themselves as he most certainly does have that "right" and always has had in match play golf.
I realize that what some think just must be the essence of some things about golf just aren't. I recall it sure was a shock to me as well when I found out a few of those things. I guess that's just another thing about golf that's so unique. It's almost never exactly what you think it should be.