Former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein won’t be around to help his Oklahoma State University teammates go after an 11th national championship this summer.

In a move that caught a lot of people by surprise, Uihlein announced on Monday that he was going to forego the last semester of his senior year for the chance to turn professional and join the European Tour.

Uihlein said in a statement that he believed it was the right time to turn pro: “I had a great 3 1/2 years at Oklahoma State. The school and the program were great for me, and I believe I contributed to the program’s tradition. (But) I wanted to have the full calendar year to start the next chapter in my life and not start midseason. The coaches at Oklahoma State understood my decision.”

The decision to turn pro wasn’t Uihlein’s only big surprise on Monday; he also announced that he’d signed with Chubby Chandler’s International Sports Managment Group, which happens to be the same management team that represents Lee Westwood and Charl Schwartzel.

After unsuccessfully qualifying for the PGA Tour and European Tour earlier this year, most assumed Uihlein would finish his senior year at OSU before giving Q-School another shot. But that’s no longer the case.

Without full-time membership, Uihlein will be allowed seven sponsor exemptions on the European Tour, with his first crack at being a professional coming at the high-profile Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

While Uihlein’s decision to turn pro isn’t surprising — he held the No. 1 player in amateur golf on five different occasions — joining ISM and the European Tour seems to have some people scratching their heads.

Most figured Uihlein would likely go after membership on the PGA Tour before he looked at playing abroad, but the chance to get starts and possibly go a different route to professional golf stardom seemed to be enough to sell him on starting his career abroad.

Uihlein will certainly learn alot, and with Chubby Chandler’s connections, he should have no trouble getting sponsor’s invites going forward. The big question now is if he can make his starts count on the European Tour.

You can certainly file these Lee Westwood quotes under the header “things you don’t hear professional golfers say.”

Westwood, who won in Thailand over the weekend, seems primed to have a big 2012. The win not only propelled him ahead of Rory McIlroy in the OWGR, it also allowed him to become the leading career money-earner on the European Tour, and the first Briton to surpass the £25m mark in on-course earnings.

Needless to say, Westwood’s Christmas presents came early this year.

However, when the dust settled on his historic victory, it wasn’t his on-course accomplishments that were making headlines. Instead, it had to do with comments Westwood made about professional golfers making too much money.

During an interview with The Independent, Westwood gave some refreshing comments on the eye-popping money professional golfers make these days.

“We play for a staggering amount of money, no doubt about it and I’ve always stressed we are very very fortunate. I think we are paid too much money —- compared to police and teachers and nurses. But then compare it to footballers. I think the only thing you can probably justify it by is that when golfers have a bad day, we don’t get paid anything, but when we have a great day we get paid a lot. It’s part of the pressure involved. There isn’t a wage as such.”

It’s hard to disagree with Westwood’s comments. Looking back at the prize money Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus played for in their prime, there’s no doubting the sport has turned into a cash bonanza for the most successful players in the world.

However, if you were to look at the mini-tour guys just scraping by to keep their dream alive, you’d see a number of professional golfers probably make as much as some police officers and teachers. The difference is most people never see these guys teeing it up in local events. We only see the big names playing on the Golf Channel.

Westwood makes a great point about the guys at the top of the sport, but it’s a different story for a majority of the professional golf population. Will we ever see the money decreased in the future? Probably not. But it’s still nice to hear from a ground pro who seems to be looking at things from a different perspective.

Steve Stricker generally has himself a fine time at the John Deere Classic; he’s won the last three of the darn things. And he does it with astonishing shots like this one, a save that set him up for a one-stroke victory. This is what separates him from you; he didn’t fall and break anything.

At the Thailand Golf Championship, none other than John Daly took the stage for a little impromptu jam, and he busted out that three-chord classic, “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” And you know what? It ain’t bad. He doesn’t bust out the throat-searing crescendos of Axl Rose, but hey, he’s not wearing that American flag as a kilt either, so we take what we can get.

And be sure to listen to the golf-oriented verse toward the end; no way Dylan had that in mind when he wrote this. Still, if you don’t feel a touch moved by lines like “Haven’t made a cut in weeks / My career looks really bleak,” your heart may be two sizes too small.

[Visor tip: Deadspin]

Lexi Thompson is making LPGA commissioner Mike Whan look like a genius for granting the 16-year-old full-time membership in 2012.

If winning the Navistar LPGA Classic — to become the youngest winner in tour history — wasn’t impressive enough, the teen phenom closed out the season in style on Saturday, capturing the Dubai Ladies Masters to become the youngster winner in Ladies European Tour history.

There was a point in time early on when some wondered if Thompson could handle the incredible pressure that was being heaped on her from an early age. But over the last four months she’s shown enough moxie and ability to make you believe she’s the future of women’s golf.

It’s hard to look past Yani Tseng’s 12-win season and not feel like she has a stranglehold on the best player on the planet title; however, while the wins are nice, what the LPGA really needs at this point is a charismatic player to get people interested in the tour.

Thompson could very well be that player. Like a young Rickie Fowler, she has the cool-factor to draw in the younger crowd, as well as the game to back it up. We’ve seen plenty of young players ride a wave of hype before burning out, but this time around, it’s hard to see Thompson going that route.

With each passing event, she continues to look more and more like the real deal. Going forward, the real test starting next season will be picking out a schedule that’s manageable and taking things slow in her first full season.

Like Rory McIlroy when he first started playing abroad, Thompson would do well to stay fresh and take things easy. Her game is good enough at this point to contend on a consistent basis, and with a couple wins already under her belt she’s free to pick and choose her events. Accomplishing that goal will put her in a great position in the years to come.

The LPGA has been waiting you a young star to come along and shake up the tour. For the longest time everyone thought that was Michelle Wie. But after watching Thompson hoist the trophy on Saturday in Dubai, maybe we were wrong all along. For the moment it looks like a 16-year-old with an extremely bright future is the tour’s heir apparent.

Time again for another Devil Ball Golfcast, and this time around, we’re recounting the visit of our very own Shane Bacon to Pebble Beach and several other esteemed golf courses as part of Lexus’s “Champions for Charity” program. Yep, they let folks like us on Pebble, and Shane is living proof. What’s it like teeing it up on some of the most famous golf real estate on the planet? Shane will tell you.

From there, we segue into some year-end talk, including whether Rory McIlroy is burning himself out by playing too much. Plus a discussion of golf groupies, and some debate over whether Johnny Miller might actually know what the hell he’s talking about. It’s good stuff.

You can read more from Shane at Dogs That Chase Cars. (Follow Shane on Twitter right here, and while you’re there, follow me too.)

We welcome your thoughts, ideas and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Click the little arrow below to play the podcast or right-click it to download, and hit the iTunes or RSS icons linked below to subscribe. Follow us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @shanebacon to get more frequent updates. Have at it!

Devil Ball Golfcast 80: They let people like us on Pebble Beach?

When you’re five shots down with three holes to go, you pretty much figure you’re out of it, right? Not unless you’re insane or Keegan Bradley at the PGA Championship. A few clutch birdies later, led by this astonishing 35-foot putt at 17, and Bradley snagged himself his very first major in one of the best stories of the year.

For the first time in 17 years, the year-end world golf rankings could be missing an American flag in the top 5. After watching Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker dominate the game, and rankings, for the longest time, the golf landscape shifted in 2011, as Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy took over the top spots and look primed to continue their strong play in 2012.

While American golf has almost become an afterthought to some, Ian Poulter said it would be silly to discount the U.S. in 2012. Based on the way a number of American players finished the season, Poults believes the Stars and Stripes could be on the verge of a return to relevance.

“There is some great talent coming out of the States. I’m not going to say they are in a slump in any way, shape or form; they have some fantastic players,” Poulter said at the JBWere Masters.

“But I think certainly in the next 18 months, two years, we will see a push from those young guys in the States.”

Poulter pointed to Rickie Fowler as one player who could break out next season, and based on the way he’s played recently — picking up his first professional late in the year — he’d be a good bet to capture his first PGA Tour victory and maybe even contend at a major.

But he’s just one of the U.S. names to keep an eye on in 2012. With Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson having big years, there’s reason to believe American golf could be on the comeback trail.

[Via GolfTalkCentral.]