Weird World of Sports: Golf in 2009

Long considered the most staid of sports, golf is not-so-quietly having a bizarre 2009 season.

And things aren't going to get any more sane when the U.S. Open returns to Bethpage Black on Long Island later this month, where there are sure to be more cries of "You da man!" and "Get in the hole!" than polite golf claps.

Where to begin? Two amateurs -- Danny Lee, 18, and Shane Lowry, 22 -- have already won on the European PGA Tour after just one did the trick previously in its long history. The New Zealand star-in-waiting Lee, at the time the world's top-ranked amateur and already tipped as another "next Tiger Woods," triumphed at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia, while Ireland's Lowry wrote a storybook ending with a thrilling playoff victory in his national championship, the 3 Irish Open. Less surprising: Both men have since turned professional.

The PGA Tour's largest victory this season was turned in by -- who else? -- Brian Gay. Brian Gay?! Yes, the 37-year-old notched his second career win (his first took 293 starts) with a record-setting 10-stroke romp at the Verizon Heritage Classic on the much-loved Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Journeyman Michael Bradley won for the first time in 11 years at the Puerto Rico Open, albeit against a weak field, since the world's best were gathered at the World Golf Championship CA Championship, where Phil Mickelson won for the second time this year, or twice as many as Tiger Woods in his much anticipated return from knee surgery. Whether Woods' struggle with his swing, especially his driver, has been a surprise depends on whom one talks to; more expected has been his ability to contend despite rarely having his vaunted "A-game."