Golf Golf Odds And Ends

Every sports fan has a little bit of a photographic memory. They remember images of their favorite players or incredible moments. The Joe Carter home run leap. The concluding seconds of the Miracle on Ice. Michael Jordan's final shot against the Jazz in 1997.

In golf, one year stands out for images that will forever be burned in our skull. That year was ten years ago, in 1999. You had the David Duval eagle putt for 59 drop as his yellow Tommy Hilfiger shirt came untucked and a rare first pump ensued. Sergio Garcia closing his eyes to hit a shot from behind a tree at Medinah, only to run down the fairway as it somehow found its way on the putting surface, scissor kick and all. Payne Stewart's statuesque image when the winning putt dropped at Pinehurst. Jean Van de Velde, hands on his hips, standing in the Barry Burn at Carnoustie, pants rolled up, making the most famous triple-bogey in the history of golf. Any and all images from that Sunday at Brookline, when the Americans stormed back to beat the Europeans at the Ryder Cup.

GolfChannel.com decided to put all these in writing in something they're calling "Project '99", and had some of their most talented voices jot down what they remembered from the event personally. Rich Lerner, who has been with The Golf Channel since 1997, chatted with FanHouse about the Van de Velde collapse, amongst other things. Click away for a little trip back in time.

As Jay Busbee pointed out, there's no real way to answer the whole "Do you like golf or sex better?" question without getting a phone call from the old superiors. And really, it depends on how good you are, doesn't it? Or who's in your foursome.

Regardless though, Callaway Golf (my preferred playing partner, thanks for asking!) and their new advertising campaign is plowing through any notion of discretion and answering the question for you with a reasonably risque but very well done commercial. Video after the jump (which couldn't possibly be considered NSFW unless you work at a nursery school or the Nike compound or something).

You've heard it before, but there is one rule on eagle putts -- you never leave them short. That should also be a rule for someone trying to hole a putt worth $10,000, as Jay Busbee at Devil Ball Golf found.

Bruce Gietzen, a news anchor for an ABC affiliate in Waco,Texas, was the only qualifier at a tournament to get a chance at the $10,000 putt, measured off about 60 feet or so from the cup.

Gietzen stroked the putt, anxiously awaited the fate, and as it's rolling you almost think the thing is going to drop dead center. How close was it to dropping? Video after the jump ...

Rick Reilly has had some big hits with his novels, along with the occasional dud (Slo Mo). As a golf fan, "Missing Links" and the follow-up, "Shanks for Nothing" were fun reads about a the every day municipal golf course and all the crazy stereotypes that embodies such a place (drunk, hustler, 6-pack girl, etc.).

Hollywood appears to like the book so much, they're making it into a movie, and now Steve Carell has signed on to star in the film.

(Warner Bros.) has acquired "Missing Links," a golf comedy based on a novel from ESPN's Rick Reilly, with Carell loosely attached to star as a golfer angling for a better place to play.

Carell will produce via his Carousel Prods banner, while the company's Vance DeGeneres and Charlie Hartsock are on board as exec producers. Bobby Cohen ("Revolutionary Road") is also producing.

Get ready for the moment when you'll never complain about walking 18 holes again because in Australia, Nullarbor Links Golf Course opened, and it's long enough to wear out your pull cart's wheels.

The golf course, that took five years to complete and will take you and your threesome four days to complete (in a car!), stretches 848 miles and like one of those beer tours you've all tried to complete at the local Old Chicago, Nullabor hands out a certificate with your scorecard that can be stamped at each hole. That way, Johnny Fulloflies can't go bragging about completing the par-71 without driving across two Australian states.

So where did the idea of an AstroTurf golf course, spread out across land that is hardly visited come from? Well, as anything in Australia seems to occur, over a couple of Fosters.

A hateful message aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama, and involving a swastika, was carved in to a Boston-area golf course green early Monday morning. The Secret Service has already been called in to investigate.

At Lakeville Country Club in Lakeville, Mass., someone carved the message, "I (the Swastika symbol) Obama," into the 18th green. Course owner Gary Mosca talked to the Boston Herald about the incident:

"I said, 'This is sick,'" said Mosca, whose home is also located on the 18th hole. "They are going to do this stuff and cause a problem just to be anti-establishment or just to be tough guys. Their minds are probably demented enough to think of anything."

Every golf fan has seen Happy Gilmore at least once. You clearly remember, the descriptive moment when Chubbs, the instructor trying to help Adam Sandler's character become a better golfer, describes how he lost his hand.

He explains the situation, taps the glass jar with the alligator's eye in it only to have Happy explain, in fewer words, that carrying around the eye of the animal that bit off your arm is pretty strange. Well, sometimes, movies become real life, and in South Carolina, that was very much the case.

An unidentified golfer went to retrieve a golf ball from a pond, and encountered one of those nasty beasts. The alligator got away with the man's arm but, with Chubbs smiling from some unreal heaven above, the gator was killed.

People these days know Hank Haney as the instructor of Tiger Woods, the best golfer in the world, but Haney is more than that. He's been instructing golfers for 32 years, teaching over 200 touring pros in that span. Haney now owns and operates four teaching facilities in Dallas, Texas, and is the star of The Golf Channel's The Haney Project, which puts Hank with celebrities that want to improve their game. Along with that, Haney has signed a deal with Charles Schwab that includes a program they've called "Talk to a Pro," which allows Haney to give special tips about the golf world.

FanHouse caught up with Hank right before the Presidents Cup, and talked to him about Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods and what he would do to evaluate someone in a first lesson. Read the exclusive FanHouse interview below.

Over the next two weeks, FanHouse will be delivering any and all awards for the 2009 PGA and LPGA Tour season. It will be a collection of anything that needs to be awarded, from Player of the Year, to Best Shot of '09 to Breakthrough Twitterer. It is, simply named, The Green Jacket awards.

Ahh, Twitter. The current Internet sensation. Google and Facebook, all wrapped in one 140 character text band that allows people to chat up just about any subject (even though it seems most subjects revolve around Jay-Z).

This year has been a banner one for Twitter, with athletes by the busload joining the site and sharing info we have never received from athletes. (Want proof? I stalked Shaquille O'Neal once because of his Twitter, and wrote about it.)

The PGA and LPGA Tour have been no different, with golfers from all over sharing photos of themselves working out, their random hairstyles and even the enjoyment of a pro-am round. So, who is the best Tweeter of '09?

In an effort to keep our golf visitors well informed on what is going on around the Internet, Range Balls is our weekly link dump. Every Tuesday during golf season, we will toss out some of the most interesting things we came across. If you have a tip, e-mail us at fanhousegolf@gmail.com. Enjoy the links.

-- Darren Rovell tweeted that although Tiger Woods and his agent, Mark Steinberg, don't talk about the billion dollar mark, the FedEx Cup purse has pushed Tiger nearly to the ten figure mark. He thinks he'll be a billionaire by 2010, the first athlete ever to hit that mark. [Twitter]