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. ...