With 2011 drawing to a close, it’s time to look back at the most important/ popular/ bizarre stories that we ran here at Devil Ball Golf. Sure, Tiger Woods, John Daly and Phil Mickelson always draw page views and comments, but we like to venture into the stranger realms of golf, too. Join us for one last look back at a remarkable year.

January: We predicted Rory McIlroy would win a major, but we got the wrong one … In what would become a recurring theme early in the year, TV viewers got a player disqualified from a tournament, in this case Camilo Villegas … Be careful how you mark your balls on the European Tour; you could get a three-month suspension … Watermelon vs. golf club. Who ya got?

February: Arnold Palmer ended an era when he flew his final flight as a pilot … John Daly’s new golf bag has a television screen. Of course it does … Oh my heavens! Tiger Woods spit on a green! The world as we know it is coming to an end! … Yani Tseng won a couple tournaments by this point. But it couldn’t last, could it? … Oh, and 16-year-old Lexi Thompson beat an all-male mini-tour field.

March: Check out the supreme weirdness that is Henrik Stenson interviewing Henrik Stenson … also check out Tiger’s swank new bachelor pad … Ben Crane wants you to know about the dangers of slow play. It kills … Former Atlanta Brave John Smoltz continued the tradition of athletes in other sports trying golf (and failing).

April: Rory McIlroy had himself a bit of a rough Sunday at Augusta … Tiger Woods damn near turned the golf world on its head with an amazing Sunday among the azaleas … Oh, right, Charl Schwartzel actually won the Masters thanks to four closing birdies … Stacy Lewis’ mother broke her leg celebrating her daughter’s victory at the Nabisco. Ouch … Kevin Na carded a 16 on one hole in Texas … Sharks on a golf course? Why, yes!

May: Another tournament, another stupid rule violation. And since Webb Simpson narrowly lost the PGA Tour money title, this one could have been the most significant of all … RIP Seve Ballesteros … Tiger Woods bailed on the TPC early. Did the PGA Tour force him to play before he was ready? … Some kid named Keegan Bradley won the HP Byron Nelson, and, as we put it, “is now a name we should all take notice of for the foreseeable future.”

June: Rory McIlroy visited Haiti to get some perspective. And his month would get better … Pretty impressive between-the-buildings shot here from Rickie Fowler … The sublime beauty and horror that is “The Golf Boys” video … NBC omitted “under God” from a pledge before the U.S. Open, and all hell broke loose … McIlroy absolutely dominated the U.S. Open in what we termed one of the greatest performances in golf history, and six months later, we stand by that.

July: Bubba Watson: not big in France … Must-watch video: Miguel Angel Jimenez‘s disturbing pre-round workout routine … Never ever challenge Michael Jordan to a bet, even a golf one … Darren Clarke won an emotional, well-deserved British Open … All good things must end, as Tiger Woods and Stevie Williams officially called it quits, with absolutely no hard feelings whatsoever.

August: Adam Scott won the Firestone, but the story was Steve Williams completely unloading on Tiger Woods … Rory McIlroy’s ill-advised swing at a ball resting behind a root at the Atlanta Athletic Club during the PGA Championship could have had some seriously dire career circumstances … Some people get very, very excited about being so close to Tiger Woods … Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship in dramatic fashion over Jason Dufner in a win that shows exactly why we watch golf … Sports cars in sand traps: never not funny, as this clown at Pebble Beach demonstrated.

September: Nick Watney carded an 11 on a par 5 at TPC Boston, and didn’t react well … We got to chat with the one and only Robert Duvall in advance of his golf flick “Seven Days in Utopia” … Gators fighting on a golf course! … Great Britain and Ireland won the Walker Cup in an unbelievable upset … Another amazing event: the LPGA’s Solheim Cup was an instant classic … The FedEx Cup came down to a $10 million playoff, and Bill Haas topped Hunter Mahan for it all … oh, and this month saw the debut of “Wozzilroy.” Wonderful.

October: Rickie Fowler nailed down the first of what undoubtedly will be many professional victories … Here’s a new one: somebody threw a hot dog at Tiger Woods during a tournament … Sergio Garcia got his first win since 2008; his second one came only a week later … Golf racial pioneer Charlie Sifford on the Masters: “[Expletive] Augusta.”

November: The “will Yani play on the PGA Tour” talk heated up … Nice little race-tinged comment by Stevie Williams regarding his former boss … John Daly falls completely apart in Australia, running out of balls and walking off the hole … The U.S. won the Presidents Cup behind none other than Woods himself.

December: Holy sweet mother of mercy, Tiger Woods won a golf tournament … Q School is one of golf’s most painful events, and this year, as always, provided more drama than a middle-school cafeteria … Three golfers drain holes-in-one on the same hole within an hour. We hate them all … Yani Tseng won her 12th event of the year, and should be the player of the year, without doubt … John Daly, knock-knock-knockin’ on heaven’s door.

And that, friends, was our 2011. Thanks for joining us along the way. We’ll see you in 2012 with much more!

Normally lists are done in tens. The 10 best golfers of all time. The 10 best shots of the year. But in golf, 10 isn’t the number we surround ourselves with. It’s nine. We play 9 holes. We hope to end our round with a 9 in it (be it, 89, 79, 69, or even, gasp, 59), and so this year, we’ve decided to focus our end of year awards in nines. These are the most clutch moments of the year.

9.) Brittany Lincicome’s chip at the ShopRite LPGA Classic – Tied for the lead going to the 18th hole, Lincicome needed to get up and down from the thick heather, on the left side of the green, to give herself a shot to win in regulation. Standing on a sidehill slope, Lincicome hit a deft chip that hit the ridge and rolled within four feet of the hole. She went on to make the putt and win for the first time in two years.

8.) Luke Donald‘s back nine run at Disney — With his wife a couple weeks from giving birth to their second child, Luke Donald decided to take the risk and play Disney for the chance to secure the PGA Tour money title in the final event of the year. But going to the back nine on Sunday, it appeared Webb Simpson was on the verge of passing him. That was until Donald birdied the 10th hole, and the next five after it for a run of six consecutive birdies. A long bomb on the par-3 15th capped off incredible streak and allowed Donald to win not only the tournament, but the money title as well.

7.) Webb Simpson’s comeback win at the Deutsche Bank — Needing a 30-foot putt to fall on the par-5 18th hole to force a playoff in Boston, Simpson calmly rolled in the putt to force extras with Chez Reavie. From there, he made made a 15-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole, before sinking an 8-foot birdie putt on the exact same hole. In all, Simpson birdied the 18th three consecutive times to capture his first FedEx Cup win. Not too shabby.

6.) Europe secures improbable Solheim Cup victory – Severe underdogs coming into the event, nobody gave Europe much of a chance to win the cup. That ended up being a big mistake, as a group of gritty European golfers staged an improbable comeback on the final day. Suzann Pettersen came from one hole down, with three to play, to defeat Michelle Wie on the final hole. And Caroline Hedwall came from two holes back with two to play to secure the deciding half-point.

5.) Tiger Woods‘ putt on the 17th at Chevron — Woods’ six-foot putt to secure his first win in more than two years was pretty darn good. But if you want to find the clutch moment in the tournament, go back at hole to the 17th. Down one to Zach Johnson with two to play, Wood needed a birdie to square things up going to the final hole. After watching Johnson burn the edge with his putt, Woods made his first clutch putt in some time, rolling in a 15-foot birdie to a thunderous ovation from the crowd. Who knows if he even wins the tournament if that putt doesn’t fall.

4.) Charl Schwartzel‘s four-hole Masters finish — Sure, the South African won by two shots, which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But just look at what he did to secure his first green jacket: he birdied his last four holes. At Augusta National. With the entire world watching. That’s how you close, folks.

3.) Steve Stricker‘s approach shot at the John Deere Classic — Most will remember Stricker’s third consecutive John Deere win for the 25-foot putt he made at the last hole. But without the approach shot he hit on 18, we would most likely be talking about Kyle Stanley winning his first PGA Tour event. Let’s set the scene: Needing a birdie on the last to win, Stricker found his ball resting in an awkward position on the side of a fairway bunker. With one foot in the bunker and one in the rough, he pulled off one of the most amazing shots of the season, curling the ball around the lake and a couple of tall trees, and stopping it on the green. Stricker called it a “one-in-10 shot or a two-in-10 shot.” We’d have to agree.

2.) Bill Haas gets up-and-down from the water to win FedEx Cup — With $10 million on the line, the last scenario you’d want to have is one that involves hitting a shot from a water hazard. Good thing Bill Haas made the most of a bad situation at the Tour Championship. Needing to get up-and-down from a water hazard to win the tournament and FedEx Cup playoffs, Haas pulled off an incredible shot, hitting his half-submerged ball to within a couple of feet and making the putt to win on the second playoff hole. The most impressive part? He didn’t get soaked in the process.

1.) Keegan Bradley‘s PGA Championship finish – You want to talk about clutch? Keegan Bradley’s finish at the PGA Championship was the epitome of clutch. During the final round at Atlanta Athletic Club, Bradley was neck-and-neck with Jason Dufner, until a triple bogey on the 15th dropped him five shots back with three holes to play. Ball game. But instead of quitting, Bradley put together one of the greatest finishes in major championship history, rolling in back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 to force a playoff. His birdie on the 16th, the first hole of the playoff, was ultimately the difference, but that three-hole stretch to end the tournament was the only reason he hoisted the Wanamaker on Sunday evening.

Normally lists are done in tens. The 10 best golfers of all time. The 10 best shots of the year. But in golf, 10 isn’t the number we surround ourselves with. It’s nine. We play 9 holes. We hope to end our round with a 9 in it (be it, 89, 79, 69, or even, gasp, 59), and so this year, we’ve decided to focus our end of year awards in nines. These are the biggest disappointments of the year.

9.) Marquee U.S. names fail to show up on LPGA — One year after Americans Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer (captured her first major) and Michelle Wie won in the same season, not one of them hoisted a trophy in ’11. Only Brittany Lincicome and Lexi Thompson managed to represent the United States in the winner’s circle. While both are certainly great players, the tour could have used a big season from Kerr, Creamer and Wie. Unfortunately, they all left their games at home.

8.) Stupid rules win again — The Rules of Golf maintain the integrity of our great sport; however, some of the rules are incredibly stupid. Padraig Harrington was DQ’d from a tournament in Abu Dhabi after his ball moved — heck, it appears to oscillate just a bit, in my opinion — a fraction of an inch. Webb Simpson also missed out on a win in New Orleans when his ball moved after addressing a five-foot putt. Gotta love pointless rules.

[Related: The top 10 sporting gaffes of 2011]

7.) American golf falls out of the OWGR top five — For the first time in 17 years, no American player will be ranked in the top five of the final World Golf Rankings of the year. That’s pretty sobering news for a country that used to dominate the golf scene. The good news for the U.S. is that a new crop of guys are coming on strong. But if this season taught us anything, it’s that the professional golf scene no longer belongs to the Stars and Stripes.

6.) Graeme McDowell‘s incredible slide – Seriously, what the heck happened to Graeme McDowell this season? One year after winning his first major, sinking the winning putt at the Ryder Cup, and beating Tiger Woods at his own event, the Ulsterman completely fell off the map in ’11. Aside from not posting a win, his best finish of the season was a third-place showing … which he posted in the first event of the season. He also struggled with his swing for most of the year, posting a couple of rounds in the 80′s. You have to wonder who’s going to show up next season, Jekyll or Hyde?

5.) Parity in golf – Tim Finchem is a big fan of parity in golf, but if the PGA is going to thrive again, somebody needs to step up and take the reins. Without a single three-time winner on the PGA Tour in 2011 and no repeat major winners since 2008, the sport is unpredictable at the moment. That may be fine for some, but most fans know the sport is always at its best when there’s a clear-cut favorite leading the pack.

4.) John Daly implodes — Some may consider this a highlight, but John Daly’s Tin Cup-esque moment at the Australian Open was  just another black eye for golf’s biggest sideshow. After knocking one shot in the water on the par-5 11th, Daly proceeded to hit six more in the water before running out of balls and walking off the course. His actions prompted the tournament committee to ban him from future events in Oz.

[Related: Golf's top five stories of 2011]

3.) Professional athletes taking away spots in mini-tour events — One year after NFL legend Jerry Rice took away spots in two Nationwide events, former Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz tried his luck in a mini-tour event earlier in the year … and got humbled by the course. To make matters worse, Rice teed it up again and missed the cut. The biggest disappointment here isn’t Rice and Smoltz missing the cut, it’s tour events deciding it makes sense to give a spot to an undeserving pro athlete over a guy who, you know, actually earned his tour card.

2.) Bubba Watson‘s comments about France — Bubba Watson’s one of the funniest guys on tour, but his sense of humor (or lack thereof) certainly didn’t translate when he played in the French Open. Watson called the iconic Eiffel Tower “that big tower,” and the Arc de Triomphe “this arch I drove round in a circle.” Talk about doing everything you can to endear yourself to the locals.

1.) Tiger Woods — Sure, the guy finally got his first win in more than two years earlier this month, but a look at his body of work tells you everything you need to know about Tiger’s season. No doubt about it, this was another down year for the former No.1. Not only did he fail to win a major, he also withdrew from the Players with another leg injury; missed the cut for the first time ever at the PGA Championship; and looked completely out of sorts for most of the year. Say what you will about the state of his game; overall, 2011 was a major disappointment.

[Related: Caddie Steve Williams among 2011's biggest villains]

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Normally lists are done in tens. The 10 best golfers of all time 7hellip; The 10 best shots of the year … But in golf, 10 isn’t the number we surround ourselves with. It’s nine. We play nine holes. We hope to end our round with a “9″ in it (be it, 89, 79, 69, or even, gasp, 59), and so this year, we’ve decided to focus our end of year awards in nines. These are the biggest surprises of the year.

9.) Bill Haas‘ win of the FedEx Cup — Sure, Haas has always been a big name in golf, but that was mostly because of Bill’s dad. The FedEx Cup playoffs have allowed us the opportunity to make a regular player a star, but up until 2011, haven’t do that. Not this time. With what we named the shot of the year from a lake, Haas won the $10 million bonus, made the Presidents Cup, and moved from good player to big name.

8.) The resurgence of Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia — We group golfers together because of age, and when Scott and Garcia both started to come up, we thought of them alike. Both ruggedly handsome with an incredible ability to hit the ball and a short-stick problem, they seemed destined for greatness. Unfortunately, both flopped, but 2011 was the year they returned to greatness. Watch out for both these names in the coming year.

7.) Charl Schwartzel‘s run to close out the Masters — We are used to legends doing legendary things, but when a relative no-name does it, eyebrows raise. That’s why when Schwartzel closed out his Masters win with four straight birdies, becoming the only player to ever do so, we all were left with jaws on the floor.

6.) Yani Tseng going from good player to great player — Can you believe Yani is only 22? She sure doesn’t play like it. With 12 worldwide wins this year including two majors, she was the player of the year over both tours and showed us that dominance can come even when a certain Mr. Woods struggles.

5.) Darren Clarke‘s improbable British Open win — Maybe my favorite major of the year was one of the least dramatic, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t stand up and applaude the play of Clarke. A good guy from all accounts, Clarke beat the field at Sandwich for his first (and most likely only) major win. When David Duval won the British back in 2001, he mentioned after that he really felt disappointed in a “This is it?” sort of way. I think nobody would say Clarke felt that way.

4.) Webb Simpson‘s breakout year – Golf produces plenty of flashes in the pan, but it seemed every week young Simpson was in the hunt. He had two wins, three second place finishes and 12 top-10s total.  Don’t expect Smiling Simpson to go anywhere.

3.) Rory McIlroy‘s bounce-back at Congressional after falling apart at Augusta — Most of the time, adversity can hurt you, but for some reason, the Masters collapse by McIlroy lit a fire under him. He came to the second major of the year with a purpose, and made the tournament a relative snoozer. His win was the most impressive of the year (if not, the last 10) and showed that when his game clicks, he is truly unbeatable.

2.) The struggles of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson — The two biggest names in the game (Sorry, Rory) are still supposed to produce results even as they get older, but they combined for only one PGA Tour win and really struggled for most of the season. At times they showed they still belong (Tiger at Augusta and Phil, strangely, at the British), but for the most part, it was a forgettable season for the two.

1.) Keegan Bradley‘s incredible rookie run — I went to dinner during Bob Hope week with a friend, and Bradley was at the table with us, and at the time, wasn’t even the second most popular professional golfer at the table, and it was just four people! He made his mark by winning the Byron Nelson, already a dream year for a rookie, but it was the PGA Championship that really made him the surprise of the year. Right when we counted Bradley out of that major, he stormed back with emphatic birdies, and matched great shots in a playoff he would eventually win.

Believe it or not, we’re less than 10 days away from the start of the 2012 PGA Tour season. Better get ready right now!

The PGA Tour has this quick preview of the season, including the majors, the full-field tournaments, the FedEx Cup, the Players Championship, the World Golf Championships and other golf world staples.

Ready yet? It’s almost here…

You need a better game. Don’t deny it. So why not let Stewart Cink help?

Recently, Cink sat down with the PGA Tour’s Win McMurry and Devil Ball Golf to talk a little about his own game, the challenges of life on Tour, and a new promotion from Crowne Plaza hotels. You can see the details of his interview above.

And if you’re intrigued by Mr. Won-The-British-Open-And-Broke-Tom-Watson’s-Heart, why not take a shot at playing alongside him? As he notes in the video above, if you go to Crowne Plaza’s Facebook page by December 29 (not much time!) to enter their “Get A Better Game” contest, you might just win a chance to play alongside Cink in the 2012 Crowne Plaza Invitational Pro-Am in May.

If you win, you also get to bring a guest down. We don’t have any plans yet for May. Just sayin’. So get to it!

No sport offers quite the longevity to its players as golf. You can play at a reasonably competitive professional level for more than four decades, or more than ten times the length of your average NFL career. When guys like Ryo Ishikawa, Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy hit it so big at such a young age, it’s not out of the question to think they’ll still be competitive in the 2040s. (When we’ll be playing golf on the moon or whatever.)

However, there’s one big question looming over many of these players: what will keep them pushing to play? For earlier generations, the Champions Tour is the equivalent of an ATM; see ball, hit ball, cash check. But now, when golfers can amass more money in a tournament than many fans make in a decade? Yeah, the financial incentive isn’t quite there.

Rory McIlroy hinted as much in a recent Irish Independent interview. (Via Wei Under Par.) When asked about whether he’d buy a private plane — you know, the kind of questions we’re all kicking around — in order to extend his career, he replied, “I don’t plan to be playing tournament golf in my forties.”

Sure, easy to say now, but if he continues on his current trajectory, why would he? Kid’s going to have half a dozen majors before he’s 30. And since pursuit of Tiger and Jack may be out of the question, what would he have left to prove by then?

First step, though: winning the Masters. And he’s lasered in. “Everything I do from the time I return to the game in the New Year will be geared to the Masters,” he said. “And next April at Augusta, instead of being with the lads (his friends), I’ll be sharing a house with my mum and dad. It’s important to have them there.”

Anyone feel like betting against him? Yeah, didn’t think so. But watch closely, because it looks like we may not have him around as long as we’d thought.

I must say, I was a little disappointed when news broke that Kodak would renew their deal with the PGA Tour through 2016, but with it, dump the Kodak Challenge.

If you don’t know, the Kodak Challenge was a run for $1 million throughout the PGA Tour season that picked a signature hole at each golf course and had players “best ball” for the lowest score throughout the year. Make a birdie on the 18th hole at Kapalua and you’re 1-under. Make a birdie the next week at the Sony Open’s signature hole and you’re 2-under for the year, and so on.

Of course the Kodak Challenge was just another drop in the hat of events most people aren’t going to pay attention to, but I liked the fact that lesser known players had a chance to compete for some money that might actually matter. Guys like Tiger Woods, Luke Donald and Bill Haas might win $10 million at the end of the season with a victory in the FedEx Cup, but do you think it really matters to these guys that are already worth more money than they know what to do with?

I loved when Kevin Streelman took home the inaugural Kodak Challenge in 2009, a guy that actually could use a million bucks (just two years before I was competing against that guy in mini tour events). I loved that 2010 ended in a playoff for the million bucks, and who doesn’t enjoy seeing someone like Bill Lunde snag the cash?

I’m sure most people are glad to see it go, but I actually thought it was a cool wrinkle to the golf season, and something that some of the guys that aren’t going to be on the front of the media guide could play for. It will be missed.

Remember when ESPN rolled out the “30 for 30″ series and it was hailed as a one of the best pieces of programming in the network’s history? Well, the Golf Channel has the opportunity to do the exact same thing. That’s assuming, of course, the network is smart enough to pick up Landmark Media Productions’ “The Golf Courses of the British Isles.”

Here’s a quick rundown of the 13-part series:

Using his powerful, often poetic, prose as a narrative guide, “The Golf Courses of the British Isles” will be a video travelogue through the breathtaking courses of Great Britain and Ireland. Stunningly shot and immaculately produced, our series will showcase these spectacular venues in a way that has never been done. In Darwin’s writings, the golf courses become living, breathing characters. It’s time to tell their stories.

Based on comments from someone closely connected to the project, the series apparently hasn’t been snatched up by a network in the States. Now, we know the Golf Channel has its own unique programming (who doesn’t love Big Break reruns?), but this TV series looks incredibly special.

Even if you haven’t played a single course in the British Isles in your life, I’d be willing to bet you’d want to head over after watching this series. You just hope someone wises-up and buys the rights in the near future. I think we can all agree 13, 30-minute shows dedicated to some of the best courses in the world would be time well spent on the couch.

[Via GolfClubAtlas]