Best of 2016: Bizarre moments

Sometimes an incident is so bizarre it defies explanation. Like during first round of the Wells Fargo Championship when a fan threw a ball with an earplug attached to it after Rory McIlroy had hit his tee shot. “It was sort of weird. That’s never really happened to me before,” McIlroy said. “So random. The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it,” said Rickie Fowler, who was in the same group with McIlroy. Fortunately, the fan was escorted out of the tournament.

A year after Greg Norman nearly lost an arm to a chainsaw accident, Jamie Donaldson had a mishap of his own. His wasn’t as severe as the Shark’s, but Donaldson needed several stitches on his left pinky finger and had to pull out of Abu Dhabi.

Zac Blair was heading toward a missed cut at the Wells Fargo Championship. After missing a birdie putt at the fifth hole he gave himself a whack in the head with his putter. Blair apparently hit himself so hard it bent his putter. He putted out with the damaged club, which is a no-no under rule 4-3b. Blair realized his mistake on the next hole and called the penalty on himself. Blair issued an apology and even poked fun at himself by tweeting out a GIF of Woody Austin, who famously hit himself in the head several times with his putter at Hilton Head in 1997.

Brittany Lang won her first major title at the U.S. Women’s Open in a playoff over Anna Nordqvist. But it was “Bethany” Lang who was praised at the trophy ceremony. That’s because USGA president Diana Murphy somehow kept pronouncing Lang’s name wrong despite shouted corrections from the assembled crowd. That night, Murphy issued an apology. “I have expressed my regret to Brittany personally and explained that in the heat of the moment, I became nervous and made these mistakes. I appreciate her understanding, and I am sorry that what I said may have taken away from a historic moment for a very deserving champion.”

Matt Kuchar made a hole-in-one in the third round at the WGC-HSBC Champions, and if not for a technicality he would have won a new Cadillac. Kuchar called it “probably one of the saddest hole-in-ones I’ve ever had.” That’s because the tee markers had been moved up to 193 yards that day, and the contest rules stated the hole had to play at least 200 yards to win the car. But when Cadillac heard about Kuchar’s ace, they made things right and gave him the new car anyway.

Twelve players got an early Christmas gift thanks to a clerical error at PGA Tour headquarters that resulted in a bigger field at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The Tour planned to reduce the field from 144 players to 132 to make sure play was completed despite the reduced daylight in the fall. But the change was never input into the Tour’s computers and 144 players got into the event. Rod Pampling was one of the 12 players who got in, and he went on to win the tournament.

Thomas Pieters noticed his PGA Tour headshot was a bit off. That’s because a lot of his curly locks had been edited out. Pieters posted the pics side-by-side on social media, and it drew a funny apology from the Tour’s executive vice president, Ty Votaw: “In the standard process of prepping new headshots for broadcast TV, electronic scoreboards and other uses ... our vendor was a bit too heavy-handed in the editing of Thomas Pieters’ photo ... We regret this sequence of events and meant no disrespect to Thomas. We think he has a great head of hair.”

Justin Timberlake was walking between holes at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe when a fan reached out and touched the back of Timberlake’s neck. The fan was later identified as Keith Weglin, 29, of Sacramento, Calif. Timberlake declined to press charges, but when security tried to escort Weglin from the course he became disruptive and was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Three days before Christmas, Tiger Woods gave a little insight into a tradition at the Woods household. “Xmas tradition that my kids love. Mac Daddy Santa is back!” Who knew one of first questions Woods will have to face in 2017 is not “How is your back feeling?” or “What equipment will you be playing?” It’s “What the heck is Mac Daddy Santa?”

There are all kinds of wildlife wandering around the course at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, and this year was no exception. A herd of mongooses stormed a green and disrupted play. Fortunately they didn’t take any golf balls.