Golf Spelled Backwards

Did you know that there was a time in the 1970s when multiple PGA Tour tournaments were affected by death threats against golfers? Or by bomb threats called in anonymously? Thankfully, nothing ever came of the threats, but they caused real consternation and worry — and real police presences — at multiple events back then.

Augusta National banned Gary McCord from Masters broadcasts after McCord suggested, among other things, that there might be bodies buried under the sundry humps and bumps of Augusta. Now, a Seattle-area funeral home and cemetery plans to literally bury deceased golfers under a golf course. Or a golf hole, anyway. Sunset Hills Memorial Park and Funeral Home in Bellevue, Wash., has created the Memorial Golf Park, which Sunset Hills says is "the nation's first golf-themed memorial park." If you're one of those people who is always dying to play golf, this might be for you. The Memorial Golf Park consists of one golf hole, complete with tee box, fairway, bunker and putting green. Including both full-casket burial plots and cremation placements, 1,281 golfers can be buried on the hole. Or, to put it another way, 320 fourballs plus one single. That poor single. He's always going to be waiting, and always asking to play through. (No fivesomes allowed in heaven!) ...

It was a dark and stormy night ... or maybe not. Either way, Ian Poulter was spooked by the rental house he was staying at during The Heritage in Hilton Head, S.C. Poulter wrote on Twitter: "Check this out, we have a ghost in our house this week & I'm not joking we have had some very strange goings on every night." Strange goings-on in the Poulter house? Was Ian laying out his next day's outfit? No. He quickly added: "We have a dead bolted door in the house & every morning that door is unlocked & slightly open. It's happened 7 times already." Yes, I can see how that would be disconcerting. Although my thoughts wouldn't turn to spirits, but to someone playing a trick on me. Or a squatter living in the attic. But hopefully just the former. Poulter then updated: "No joke for real, very bizarre the door is pretty solid with a dead bolt & number of times it's been unlocked & open. Calling home owner now" Alas, n...

That's not a headline you see every day, eh? But then, the story of Garth Stirrat isn't your everyday story. Stirrat had served for six years as the CEO of the New Zealand Professional Golf Association (NZPGA), until resigning earlier this year. Within the past couple weeks he started a new job as the head of the New Zealand Hotel Council. Now he's resigned from that position as well. Why? Because of some earlier "positions" he held. Using the alias "Steve Parnell," Stirrat took part in some pornographic photo shoots and was a performer in a pornographic video shot in 2003. Steve Parnell? Dude, if you're gonna go porno, at least show some creativity with your alias. Even George Constanza came up with "Buck Naked." From New Zealand's Sunday News : "I don't know what to say," said Southern North Island area manager Zayne Boone, who appointed Stirrat. "Obviously we need to make sure that the way in which we c...