Keep the green tidy?

I can't think of any particular reason why O'Neil would be crouched down and picking up a golf ball here..

Except of course that does happen in the movie...

But I guess the point of crouching would be to appear to be smaller, using Shepherd looming overhead as a storytelling device?

The stylistically beautiful over proportion Steranko brings to any scene - and O'Neil here...

Kind of looses the point of oversizing Shepherd from the movie if it that what is was - or maybe O' Neil was just keeping the green tidy...?