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It’s been a year of ridiculous golf rules violations, a year in which the rule book altered the course of tournaments for apparently minor violations. Defenders of the game’s Sacred Rules have had their hands full justifying ridiculously over-the-top punishments for minor violations. Consider Michelle Wie’s absent-minded club grounding; nitpicky local rules that hammered Ryuji Imada and Nick Faldo in China; a non-functioning alarm clock that got Jim Furyk kicked out of a tournament; and most famously, Dustin Johnson‘s bunker-not-bunker misfire that cost him a shot at the PGA Championship.

[Rewind: Golfer disqualified from big tournament for sleeping in]

Now, though, we’ve got one that might just top them all. Ian Poulter, on the green in a sudden-death playoff at the Dubai World Championship, accidentally dropped his ball onto the small platinum coin that Poulter uses as his marker, flipping the marker over.

No big deal, right? Simply replace the marker and go on with your game, right?

Wrong, friend, wrong. Poulter incurred a one-stroke penalty for disturbing his marker. And you might have incurred one there yourself, just for questioning the rules. Careful, or you’ll get hit with another.

The penalty cost Poulter a chance to win the tournament, allowing Robert Karlsson to ease his way to the title. (To be fair, Poulter had a 40-foot birdie putt while Karlsson’s was inside 5 feet, but Poulter has a way of draining these long ones regardless.) Karlsson won $1.25 million in the European Tour’s final event of the year.

[Related: Golfer sued over 'Fore' failure]

Poulter, in keeping with golf tradition, informed rules officials immediately of the infraction, and boom, that was that. He had violated Rule 20-1/15, which chief referee Andy McFee indicated read as follows: "Any accidental movement of the ball marker which occurs before or after the specific act of marking, including as a result of dropping the ball, regardless of the height from which it was dropped … results in the player incurring a one stroke penalty."

Certainly, Poulter did the right thing in reporting the violation. The fact that the players police themselves is what makes golf a unique sport. But the rule isn’t the problem; the severity of the punishment is. As with so many other infractions in golf, the penalty is totally out of proportion to the degree of the "crime." 

Still, Poulter’s colleagues gave exactly the kind of sympathetic, sorrowful reaction you’d expect from your golf buddies. "Poults may not have won the Dubai world championship," Rory McIlroy Tweeted, "but he could be in with a shout for tiddlywinks world championship." And Lee Westwood called him "sparrow legs Dubai tiddlywink champ."

[Related: Teen disqualifies himself, gives up medal]

Poulter indicated that he’d still use the coin, which has his children’s names, in future tournaments. The rule book, of course, had no comment. And don’t you dare think to question its tweedy absurdity and total lack of common sense. Don’t you dare.

For more golf news, follow Yahoo Sports’ Devil Ball Golf on Twitter at @jaybusbee and on Facebook right here.

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The Players Championship is routinely known around these parts as golf’s fifth major. It is the tag given because, like the Masters, it is always played on the same golf course, and it brings in the world’s best talent.

But don’t tell Rory McIlroy that. The 21-year-old phenom that already said he’d spend most of his year in Europe next season, avoiding the PGA Tour, dogged TPC Sawgrass and the Players, saying he didn’t like the golf course and never feels comfortable there.

This is what McIlroy told our brother from another mother, Yahoo! UK.

"I don’t like the course," McIlroy said on the eve of the Dubai World Championship, the final tournament of the European Tour season. "That’s one of the reasons I’m undecided whether to play it or not.

"It’s a Pete Dye course. It creates angles, a bit like Whistling Straits," he said. "He designed that course as well, where the tee boxes are sort of lining you up in the wrong direction. Visually it’s very tough off the tee. It makes you feel uncomfortable because it looks like you’ve only got a little bit of fairway to hit but actually once you get up there, it’s a little bit wider. It’s just very demanding visually," added McIlroy.

Well, don’t hold anything back there, Rory. He did say he thought the event was prestigious after bashing Sawgrass, but that almost seemed like a PR ploy more than an honest answer.

The truth is, Sawgrass is tough. It’s really difficult, and when the conditions aren’t perfect, players have a tough time winning. It’s the same reason that a guy like Tiger Woods has only won the event once, and why names like Craig Perks and Fred Funk adorn the trophy.

That being said, it seems like McIlroy is really getting a lot off his chest this off-season. He first admitted to not being comfortable playing the PGA Tour, because he’d rather be at home (understandable to a degree, but come on, this is pro golf), and now he’s thinking of ditching out on the fifth most important tournament in golf.

Maybe it is time we start mandating players show up to certain events. If the PGA Tour doesn’t, in the next few years we could see these guys once or twice, and that’s just for the majors.

A very happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. For everyone else … go about your day as normal. But we’ll be stuffing our faces with turkey, passing out in front of the football game, and trying our best to dodge family. We’ll see you back here bright and early Friday morning.

Hope yours goes better than Tiger’s did last year, of course.

LPGA legend Juli Inkster got mic’d up during the recent Lorena Ochoa Invitational. What did she have to say? Hear her expound on putting lines, peanut butter n’ jelly, and oh so much more:

We need much more of this. I’m thinking Anthony Kim after a late night out would be a joy to hear.

It’s funny, when I caddied the few times on the LPGA Tour, I was surprised at how many guys were out there with dark tans and squinty eyes. That is to say, a lot of guys that carry bags for a living are the type you don’t want to bet against on the golf course.

Take that and double it, and you get the caddies that surround PGA Tour players, namely, a gentleman by the name of Brett Waldman. He is the caddie for Camilo Villegas, but Waldman is trying to make a name for himself. So far, at PGA Tour Q-School, he’s done just that, getting through pre-qualifying, first and second stage, and setting his sights on third stage on Dec. 1.

It’s an interesting story, as Doug Ferguson tells us. Waldman had to spend time finding practice facilities while looping for Villegas in China during the HSBC Champions, teeing off in second stage just two days after his 18-hour flight back to the states.

Waldman elicited some incredible quotes from a few caddie friends, including one from Phil Mickelson‘s caddie, Jim Mackay.

"When I come back from China, I can’t tie my shoes for a week," said Mackay. "And this guy makes it through the second stage of Q-school. Unbelievable."

Who knows if he can continue the success, and actually make it through third stage to get his full-time card for the PGA Tour, but it’s nice to know that Waldman has the blessings of his player, Villegas, if he did make it on the PGA or Nationwide Tours.

"I asked Camilo about it and he said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Play,’" Waldman said. "I think he’s pretty fired up about it."

Just another cool story to come out of Q-School.

It seems the high-and-mighty PGA Tour might finally be realizing that it’s not the only show in town. Like many a behemoth before it that assumed it would be at the top of the heap simply because it had always been at the top of the heap, the PGA Tour has been slow to adapt to the changing golf environment, but at last, change it has.

In its battle to assert supremacy over new No. 1 Lee Westwood, the PGA Tour is apparently the first one to blink. Westwood had been told he would only be permitted to play in 10 events in the United States, but he wanted to play in 11, counting the St. Jude Classic in Memphis. (He won the event last year.) But the PGA Tour said he could play in only 10, right?

Guess what? Westwood is going to be playing in 11 events.

The fact that the PGA Tour backed down is significant, as it generally only rolls over like that for Tiger Woods. But it’s yet another signal that the tour is realizing that it may not hold ultimate domination over the world of golf. With Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter all deciding to play significant stretches of their 2011 schedule overseas, the tour finds itself bereft of many of the most talented players in golf.

Certainly, everyone still wants to play in the United States; many of the world’s finest tournaments are still here, along with most of the world’s golf legends. But the PGA Tour has to continue to recognize that what has brought them to this point won’t bring them any further. It’s a new world out there, and it’s not completely enamored of the PGA Tour.

US concessions to Lee Westwood show strength of European Tour [Guardian]