Last week, I was walking towards The Kingdom, the given name to TaylorMade’s driving range mecca, to meet up with a golfer most hadn’t heard of a year ago. As I was headed over there, a female mentioned, "I don’t care what people say, he’s really hot." The other female in the group sheepishly agreed.

And there you have Dustin Johnson, a young man that sports a soul patch, a sweet swing, and a swagger that even basketball players might envy. Taking the corner, Johnson was pegged in the back of the driving range, smashing driver after booming driver with the new white TaylorMade driver set to release in 2011.

Dustin’s story isn’t exactly a fairytale type of deal, but until 2010, he was the forgotten star of America’s young generation. While names like Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan had been talked about for years, Johnson was just doing what most had hoped they would; win multiple tournaments.

He qualified for the PGA Tour in 2007, and won the following year, at the Turning Stone. He then took home the first of two Pebble Beach Pro-Am trophies in 2008, and battled for player of the year this season with two wins and two close calls at major championships.

The closest call obviously came at the PGA Championship, when a bizarre rules infraction on the 72nd hole cost him a place in a playoff with Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson. What does Johnson remember from that?

"What a lot of people forget is I did a lot of things right to get in that position. I birdied 16 and 17 to take a one-shot lead," Johnson said while leaning back in a chair, going over stats with the new driver.

The heartbreak at Whistling Straits might have cost him a major, but the way he handled it, with the "aww, shucks" mentality he gave in the post-round interview, gained him a ton of fans across the country. Johnson could have whittled away after that, but he stuck to it, winning the BMW Championship later that year, his biggest victory to date.

So why does such a long hitter (third on tour last season at 308.5 yards per swing) play so well in these tough events?

"I like hard courses," Johnson admitted. "Most people think since I’m a long hitter that I like easier golf courses, but I like playing tougher courses."

Does that mean Augusta National, not far from his old Coastal Carolina digs?

"Augusta sets up really well for me," he said, matter-of-factly. "I just need to get the greens."

So where would he like to see his name atop next, heading into 2011?

"The Masters for sure," Johnson said. "I had the opportunity to play Augusta a few times (before I turned pro), but never did. I wanted to earn my way on the course."

He has done so, and if you’re looking towards a young golfer that has the mentality and game to take this next season by storm, don’t forget about the slender man in the white pants.

I know those two ladies won’t.

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Hey, if you’re going to rumor-monger, might as well go all in, right?

On the heels of Monday’s story about Elliot Saltman trying to fight off cheating allegations, John Huggan of The Scotsman absolutely unloads on the game of golf and its image-first sensibility. After blasting golf for its overreliance on rules even when no advantage is gained, a position we’ve echoed here before, Huggan locks, loads and then opens fire:

You may not want to hear this, but golf at every level is rife with
cheating. Well, OK, rife may be too strong a word. But it’s out there,
at every level of the game up to and including the professional level,
where the temptation to transgress is obviously increased by the often
huge financial rewards available.

You’ll never read the names of
those involved though. Officialdom doesn’t want you to know who they are
(and the legal implications of publicly exposing the culprits don’t
help either). Some, in fact, are really quite famous. One multiple major
champion, by way of example, is a notorious cheat and the subject of
any number of head-shaking locker room tales. Ryder Cup players are not
immune either. At least one is tainted forever by his serial cheating.
And there are others, many of whom have won events through the most
dubious of methods. 

He continues from there, alleging that a player who is a "huge star in his homeland" has trouble driving the ball as far when he’s not on home turf, concluding that "at home his ball was ‘hot’ and surely illegal, which is perhaps why his bag was never seen without a caddie/guard standing beside it." He also names Kenny Perry by name as a guy who apparently improved his lie a couple years back en route to winning the Phoenix Open.

Here’s the thing, though: rumor-mongering and speculating is fun, and we can hazard some pretty good guesses as to who he’s talking about. There aren’t many multiple major champions, after all, and few "huge stars" in their home countries who have different driving stats at home and abroad. But as we’ve seen, golf is a game whose very foundations rest on reputation. Throwing out charges like that can damage careers unfairly and irreparably.    

(Aside: And you thought bloggers were bad. Golf fans and media of a certain mindset love to pile on bloggers for speculating or wallowing in tabloid muck while writing from their mother’s basement. The implication, of course, is that more serious-minded writers and publications wouldn’t dare traffic in such unsourced garbage. It besmirches the dignity of the sport, or whatever. Bull. Anybody still arguing that mainstream media has any kind of moral edge over blogs just isn’t paying attention.)

And it rolls on. Monday night, Twitter began buzzing when Judith Coleman, @heyjude66, offered this: "Quite a rumor that someone in the golf world has torn his achilles. Hmmm…"

So, hell, if everybody else is doing it, why can’t we? Me, I heard a rumor that a certain professional golfer has horrifically sordid parties in the tool shed of every club he visits. Another one carries exactly six strips of uncooked bacon in his pants every time he plays Augusta. A third once killed a drifter and buried him in a pot bunker during a British Open. Hey, this is fun! And did you hear about the golfer and the one-armed masseuse …  

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For a golfer, getting tagged with the label of cheater is a scarlet letter that never really leaves you. One small allegation, proven or unproven, and you could be looking at a career-ending charge.

Elliot Saltman of Scotland is looking at just such a crisis. He’s won his European Tour card for 2011, but he’s now having to defend himself against cheating charges. At the Russian Challenge Cup on the Challenge Tour, the European Tour’s equivalent of the Nationwide Tour, Saltman was booted for incorrectly marking his ball. His two playing partners, Stuart Davis and Marcus Higley, reported Saltman to officials. 

He’ll soon be meeting with European Tour officials to explain himself. Tour officials had wanted to resolve the matter before Saltman made it through Q School, but they didn’t, he did, and now everybody’s got one hell of a mess to deal with.  

"It affects not only me but my family," Saltman told The Scotsman. "Not one player has come up to me and asked me my side of the story. I don’t want to be labelled as a cheat. Nobody wants that reputation. The sooner this gets sorted out the better. I thought it was dead and buried but I am 100 percent positive that we will get this resolved."

The players charged that Saltman had incorrectly placed the ball on several occasions, marking it in one direction when dropping the mark and placing it in a slightly different alignment when setting it down. Saltman said he agreed with the claims when approached by tour officials because he was "in shock at the time and I didn’t want to be labelled a cheat."

Saltman is facing a fine, a suspension, or both, and since this is the first time he’s obtained a tour card, it’s the worst possible time for him. The case is expected to be resolved in the next few weeks, but the European Tour season has already begun.

Saltman missed the cut in last weekend’s South African Open, and he’s got barely €30,000 — about $40,000 — in career earnings across all tours. It’d be a shame if this derailed his career before it even began.

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Golf. It’s not just about international jet-setting to play in fabulous locales. Sometimes it’s about going to the desert to knock clay pigeons out of the air. Yes, it’s a weird sport.

The European Tour doesn’t just have many of the best players in golf, it’s got the best commercials hands-down. A few months back, we brought you the hit-the-gong-on-the-lake challenge, and today, it gets even trickier.

Thongchai Jaidee, David Horsey, Johan Edfors and Simon "Chaka" Kahn journeyed to Dubai to try to knock flying clay pigeons out of the air. Could they do it? Pull!

For more of this kind of silliness, be sure to check out the European Tour’s Every Shot Imaginable site. Hit one from space next, guys!

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It’s been a fine year for Ernie Els, a return to form. He won at Doral and Bay Hill early in the year, performed extraordinarily well at the U.S. Open, won the goofy little Grand Slam of Golf and got named to the World Golf Hall of Fame. And now he’s closed out the year with his fifth win at the South African Open.

Were it not for the recovery of a certain Escalade accident victim and the rise to prominence of several European golfers, Els would be the story of 2010 hands down. But he’s got to settle for keeping that smooth swing warm, and he’ll continue to hope for that one last post-40 major.

The South African Open was about as far as you can get from major golf. For one thing, the final two days of the tournament were only 17 holes, as the par-3 fourth was too waterlogged to play either day. Tournament organizers slapped everyone with a straight par on the hole.

Could that have had an impact on the outcome? Of course. Els beat Retief Goosen (old guys unite!) by a single stroke, finishing at 25-under. He pulled off a fine final round, carding five birdies and an eagle against a single bogey. Els also won the tournament in 1992, 1996, 1998 and 2006.

It was a South African kind of leaderboard, with Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel finishing third and fourth. But the day belonged to Els, who enters 2011 riding the confidence that comes with multiple victories, no matter what the tour.

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So this is fairly cool: Fairways magazine, a French publication, is highlighting the best in golf posters from the 2010 season. Or, as the publication put it on the site, "Comme chaque saison à la même époque, nous vous proposons d’élire l’affiche de l’année," whatever the hell that means. 

Golf Girl’s Diary brings us the details, noting that these posters are art forms in Europe — where, you know, people pay attention to posters and not to silly things like the blogs we have over here.

Anyway, there are 15 posters up for consideration, ranging from straightforward photography to borderline-surrealism, like that golf ball crème brûlée deal presented there at right.

So if you’re of a mind to get a little art with your golf, go check out the nominees and vote. I have no idea what you’re signing up for when you vote, so if you don’t read French, be careful so that you don’t end up filling your inbox with a whole bunch of le spam. 

The poster idea is a great one, and I’d love to see more of this kind of thing take place stateside. Can you imagine what the poster would look like for the Waste Management Phoenix Open? Like "Tin Cup" crossed with frathouse floor, I’m guessing.

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Welcome
to the Devil Ball 100, our ranking of the 100 most important people in
the history of golf. Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be rolling them
out, 10 at a time. Our list includes everyone from golfers to
politicians to actors, and each one had a dramatic impact on the game as
we know it today. Some names you’ll recognize, some you won’t. Some
positions you’ll agree with, and some will have you wondering if we’ve
gone insane. Enjoy the rollout, and see where your favorites made the
list!

50. Greg Norman: Greg Norman, nicknamed "The Shark," has
had his share of success and failure during his career. Norman won two
major championships and spent 331 weeks as the No. 1 golfer in the world.
Even still, his 1996 Masters collapse is probably what he’s best known
for. After taking a six-shot lead into the final round, Norman crumbled
down the stretch and blew the lead, losing to Nick Faldo by five shots.
It’s still considered to be one of the biggest chokes in sports history.
While his on-course career has been a roller coaster ride, his success
off the course has been unrivaled. His highly successful golf course
design business and winery have made him one of golf’s great entrepreneurs.

49. Patty Berg: Go ahead and name the female golfer with the most
major championship wins. Most would probably say Annika Sorenstam or
Babe Didrikson Zaharias, but the real answer to the question is Patty
Berg. A founding member of the LPGA, Berg won 15 major championships
during her career, which still stands as the all-time record for a female
golfer. She also won 60 tour titles to go along with 29 amateur titles.
She was also voted AP Woman Athlete of the Year in 1938, 1942 and 1955.  

48. Charles Blair Macdonald: You can thank Macdonald for a number
of things, but the biggest would have to be his contribution to golf
course architecture in the United States. Macdonald built the first
18-hole golf course in the States (Chicago Golf Club) in 1893, and was
instrumental in founding the United State Golf Association. A pupil
of Old Tom Morris, Macdonald is considered to be one of the founding
fathers of American golf course architecture. 

47. Tommy Armour: Ever wonder why Tommy Armour golf clubs have the
name "Silver Scot" emblazoned on the back of the club? This man
is the reason. Armour, nicknamed "The Silver Scot," was a Scottish-American
tour player who won three major championships from 1927-1931. After
losing his sight during a mustard gas explosion during World War I,
Armour eventually regained his sight and started playing golf. After
successful golf career, Armour retired and began giving golf golfers;
his most notable pupil was Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Armour’s other
claim to fame is holding the record for the highest score on one hole
in PGA history, when he recorded a 23 on a par 5 — 18-over par —
at the 1927 Shawnee Open.  

46. Herbert Warren Wind: Apologies to some of the great golf writers
out there today, but none of them hold a candle to the works of Herbert
Warren Wind (even Busbee would agree with me on this one).
Wind wrote about golf for The New Yorker
and Sports Illustrated, on and off, between 1941 and 1990. He
also coined the phrase ‘Amen Corner’ in 1958 to describe the 11th,
12th, and 13th holes at Augusta National. Some of his better-known works
are The Story of American Golf
and The World Atlas of Golf. 

45. Chi Chi Rodriguez: The first Puerto Rican ever inducted into
the World Golf Hall of Fame, Chi Chi Rodriguez was known more for his
charisma on the course than his golf game. While Rodriguez went on to
win eight times on tour during his career, most will remember him for
his birdie dance, where he’d use his golf club as a "sword," slicing
and dicing the conquered hole as if it were a bull.  

44. Tim Finchem: The only number that really matters to the current
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is $200 million, as in the amount
of money tour purses are up since he took over for Deane Beaman in 1994.
As much as people like to complain about how the commish runs the tour,
it’s hard to argue with the money he’s brought to the game. Much
of that has to do with the Tiger Woods boom, but Finchem had to find
a way to capitalize on the moneymaker. Did we mention he also sold sponsors
on the FedEx Cup’s $10 million first-place prize? Needless to say,
he’s done a lot for the sport.

43. Tom Watson: His swing is the envy of most recreational golfers,
and yet Tom Watson never seems fully satisfied with his game, always
striving to improve at the age of 61. With 39 PGA Tour wins, he ranks
10th all time on the list. An eight-time major winner, Watson’s most
memorable win came at the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where Watson
managed to chip in from the deep rough on the 17th hole to defeat Jack
Nicklaus. The photo of Watson chipping in, club raised over his head,
is one of game’s most iconic images. He also came close to making
history at the 2009 Open Championship, losing in a playoff to Stewart
Cink.

42. John Daly: The game of golf has had a host of characters over
the years, but with the exception of Arnold Palmer, none has brought
the "Average Joe" to the game like Daly. Weighing over 300 pounds
at one time in his career, Daly used his weight, grip-it-and-rip-it
game, and his chain-smoking habit to connect with golf fans. As the
ninth and final alternate at the PGA Championship, Daly won his first
major and burst onto the scene with one of the most improbable wins
in major championship history. From there, he went on to win the Open
Championship at St. Andrews in 1995. After winning his second major
championship in five years, alcoholism, gambling and martial issues
quickly derailed his promising career. While his game has disappeared
in recent years, he’s still one of the biggest draws on the PGA Tour.

41. Mickey Wright: Ben Hogan
called her swing the best he’d ever seen, and yet Mickey Wright is
still an anonymous golfing great to the casual fan. After joining the
LPGA in 1995, Wright went on to win 82 tour events, which ranks second
all-time to Kathy Whitworth’s 88. The most amazing part of Wright’s
career, however, was the fact that she only played full-time until the
age of 34, because of foot problems. She also won 12 majors between
1958 and 1966, and was ranked as the ninth greatest golfer of all time
by Golf Digest in 2000.

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If you’re randomly scouring scores for the European Tour’s South African Open, and let’s face, why wouldn’t you be, you’d probably notice an eerie similarity. Everyone in the field made a par on the par-3 4th hole during the final round. Strange, right?

Not so much when you hear about what happened. The golf course sustained so much rainfall this week, that on Sunday, the fourth hole was basically unplayable, forcing players like Retief Goosen (pictured) to just walk past the par-3 and take a par.

It basically changed the Durban Country Club from a par-72 to a par-69, and made for another wacky instance to add to the list of strange things in golf that happened this season (two 59s, a major decided on a rules violation just to name one of the many rules infractions).

The forced par didn’t stop Ernie Els from taking home the trophy with a score of 25-under, the lowest ever shot in this event. Maybe Ernie could have used that extra hole to add another birdie.

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Golf can humble even the best players in the world, but this? THIS?!? This is downright humiliating. Spanish golfer Rafael Cabrera-Bello was playing his second round at the South African Open this week, and wasn’t playing that well.

Cabrera-Bello opened with an even-par 72, but was, to say the least, struggling mightily in the second round. How bad? He lost all the golf balls he had in his bag, and was disqualified for it. That’s right, Rafael basically one-upped the famous Tin Cup moment by losing that final balata, and was put out of his misery early by rule 4-4a.

According to Jason Sobel of ESPN, Cabrera-Bello lost all 11 golf balls he had in his bag, and couldn’t use another because the rules don’t allow such a thing, so he had to disqualify himself.

How bad were his first 10 holes of the second round? About as ugly as a Barkley six-iron. Cabrera-Bello shot a 46 on the first nine, with a bogey, an eight and a 10 on two par-4s.

Now, you’re probably thinking Rafael is some hack golfer, but the 26-year-old won a European Tour event in 2009, and has won two Challenge Tour (the Nationwide of Europe) events in his young career. Also, you might be confused why he only had a few balls with him (most hackers carry 11 balls in their top-right pocket), but as a caddie, I always noticed that players don’t have a ton of balls with them during tournaments. This might be a superstitious thing, similar to not playing shots from a drop zone in a practice round, or it might just be because they don’t want the bag to weigh anymore than it already has to, but when you lose 11 balls in 11 holes, you probably weren’t pushing the cut line one way or the other anyway.

Interestingly enough, Ernie Els is leading, a guy that is known to always have 18 golf balls in his bag, because he changes to a new ball after each birdie. Maybe Cabrera-Bello could have borrowed a couple from the Big Easy.

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