Absolutely bloody awful. In fact there was a thread, oh last year I think, from Sparky about just this very thing. The spirit of HFT is to prevent someone's silly mistake from losing them a point. Of course, that's not coaching that's just giving someone the best chance to avoid obscuring their talent with a silly mistake.
Well, what they should have done is ask a marshal.
If it was Mr Haas then I can just imagine the scene. For all his...um...eccentricities, Tony is a decent fellow at heart.
He just doesn't realise how close sometimes his entirely well meant banter gets to having his rifle put somwhere he'd have trouble getting the three point kneeling stance from!
Don't worry Tony, I'll always shoot with you!