Zoot Alors!! I think I figured it out and discovered something very interesting about the ball/wedge combo I use. The 7th Challenge at Oakmont back 9 in a CC tourney is a 57 yard uphill shot to the green. The wind is always blowing away and it is clearly a 64W shot. This is where I first noticed with full backspin the ball would do the hop thing. I went back there and tried it again, just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Sure enough, full backspin and it hops to a stop 3 yards off the distance. This was also with a choked swing.
I then went back again to the same hole and instead of using full backspin I used 1/2-set the dot at the base of the V on the ball. I'll be damned if the ball didn't spin right back off the green! It still doesn't explain what I saw in the AS match but apparently full backspin doesn't mean high gear reverse-something less than full does. It's almost as if putting max backspin on the Callaway s ball acts like a governor.
It seems to me that the degree of spin you put on the ball does 2 things. Into wind, 1/2 bs controls the landing with some distance loss while full bs knocks the yardage way down. Conversely, with the wind, full backspin causes carry and added distance while 1/2 controls the landing more than the carry.