Tiger Woods has been a part of some bizarre rules decisions over the years, but what happened on Friday at the Wells Fargo Championship ranks right up there with Woods' "Boulder-gate" situation at the 1999 Phoenix Open.

In danger of missing the cut when he stepped on the tee at the par-5 fifth (his 14th hole of the day), Woods was trying to make a couple of birdies down the stretch to hang around for the weekend. Instead, Woods found himself in the middle of a truly bizarre rules decision.

After hooking his second shot into the trees, Woods walked up to find his ball was nowhere to be found. Despite playing in front of a gallery that was at least four or five deep, every member claimed they never saw the ball.

Searching with hundreds of fans, Woods searched the pine straw and leaves, figuring it would show up at some point. Only the ball never reappeared. Woods shrugged his shoulders and assumed the ball lost; he would have to go back to the fairway, 261 yards from the green, to play

Quail Hollow is always one of the finest non-major fields in the game, and this year is no exception. Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and other luminaries are in attendance. But Stewart Cink is playing like it's 2009; he leads at -7 along with Ryan Moore and Webb Simpson. Play continues Friday and, we presume, on into the weekend.

Tiger Woods / Getty ImagesNobody, not even Tiger Woods, knew how his first competitive round in three weeks would go.

After walking off the 18th hole at Augusta National following a final round 2-over 74 that saw him finish T40, the worst finish of his Masters career, many wondered which version of Tiger Woods would show up at Quail Hollow.

Earlier in the week, Woods confirmed during his video Q&A that the swing issues he had at the Masters had been rectified. But following Thursday's opening-round 1-under 71 at the Wells Fargo Championship, that appeared to be far from the case.

The Tiger Woods we saw on Thursday looked rusty during his opening nine holes, hitting a number of wayward drives into the crowd and a couple of chips that had him rehearsing his swing over and over again.

But it wasn't all bad news on the day. After going out in 1-over 37, Woods seemed to find something on the back nine, using a 2-iron off the tee on a number of holes in an effort to find the fairway. While the decision was certainly

Paul Lawrie / Getty ImagesPaul Lawrie's U.S. Open record is, shall we say, less than stellar. In the past 20 years the Scotsman has missed the cut in three of his four starts, his best finish a T30 in 2002.

Clearly, the guy doesn't enjoy the major. But after seven years of not having the credentials to qualify for the tournament, Lawrie's wins in 2011 and 2012 were enough to give him a spot in the field at Olympic Club.

First U.S. Open start in eight years. Despite his record, you'd think the would guy be over the moon to tee it up in California, right? Wrong. You see, Lawrie could care less about being in the field of the second major of the year.

Instead, he'd rather tee it up in Germany at the BMW International, a mid-tier European Tour event. U.S. Open .... BMW International. I'm going to go out on a limb and say one is a little higher profile than the other.

So you're probably wondering what the heck Lawrie's doing. Why in the world would he skip a major for a cupcake tournament? Try Ryder Cup points. Yep,

Rory McIlroy / Getty ImagesRory McIlroy has been to golf's pinnacle. He knows what it's like to be the top-ranked golfer in the world and throttle a major championship field.

With the exception of maybe Tiger Woods, nobody has taken the sport by storm quite like McIlroy has at such a young age. Only 22, it's easy to see why people have the Ulsterman pegged for greatness.

When you're the second-ranked golfer in the world -- he could be No. 1 again at the end of this week if things fall into place -- and already have a major win under your belt, people expect that you eat, sleep and breathe your profession.

Quite honestly, there really isn't any other way to get to the top than to make some serious sacrifices and put everything you have into becoming the best. Some guys thrive on winning, while others seem content just to keep their card and make a nice check.

It's difficult to strike a perfect work and life balance when you're No. 1 and constantly trying to fend off your peers, but somehow, some way Rory McIlroy

James Hines. Golf cart enthusiast. (Duval County)This, friends, is how a perfect golf story is built. Behold:

This past weekend in Jacksonville, Fla., police had to break up a fight between golfers at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club.

Oh, that's a good start. But I think we can do better.

Apparently two groups were fighting with one another about golf course etiquette, like "don't drive your golf cart over the green" and "when you're done putting, get the heck off the green."

Nice, good detail. You can see how that would make you mad, right?

There was alcohol involved.

Of course.

The groups began attacking each other with golf clubs.

Beautiful! Love it! Like some country club version of "Anchorman" that I just copyrighted! Still, though, something is missing ...

Ernie Els leaves the green. (Getty Images)

Welcome to the new season of Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Jonathan Wall take a day's topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com, or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @jonathanrwall. Today, we discuss whether Ernie Els' latest misfire is a symptom of a greater problem with The Big Easy.

Busbee: Once again, Ernie Els comes up just short in his bid to win in 2012. While Jason Dufner's win was a great story for him, you and I both feel a touch of sadness that it came at the expense of Els. So it's time to ask: is this bad luck, or has the window closed on the Big Easy?

Wall: At 42, I'd be inclined to say Ernie's best years are behind him. But when you rank 10th on the PGA Tour in scoring average and 15th in greens in regulation, it's nearly impossible to discount a guy, no matter how old he is. But the putter is a huge problem, so much so that even a strong game from tee to green isn't enough to mask the issue. I wrote on Monday that the five-footer he missed on the first hole of the playoff on Sunday could've been chalked up to bad luck if it was a rare one-off, but Els has been missing makable putts all year. The four-footer to get in a playoff at the Transitions is another example of a guy who's just not confident with the putter. If his game was all over the place I'd declare the window closed, but for some reason I think if he can just get some confidence on the greens we could be looking at a guy who could win a couple more times before he's done. Am I the eternal optimist? Maybe.

Quail Hollow Club / Getty ImagesIt's tournament time! The PGA Tour moves to North Carolina for one of the top tournaments on the schedule — the Wells Fargo Championship.  Here's a tournament primer to get you prepared for the week.

The course: Quail Hollow Club will host the 2017 PGA Championship, and after watching some of the finishes the course has produced in recent years, you can see why it was pegged as the site for "Glory's Last Shot." (Sorry, I had to throw that reference in there.) The par-72 George Cobb designed layout in Charlotte, NC, measures 7,442 yards and has one of the toughest final stretches on the PGA Tour. Dubbed the "Green Mile," the final three holes -- par 4, 3, 4 -- played more difficult than the final three at the Masters, U.S. Open or Open Championship last year. No doubt about it, the finish can make or break a round. The 480-yard par-4 16th and 217-yard par-3 17th deserve a portion of the spotlight, but it's the par-4 18th (the 14th-most difficult on tour in 2011 with a stroke average of +0.380) that seems to get most of the accolades. With a bunker on the right side of the fairway and a creek meandering down the left, it's imperative that players find the fairway on the 478-yard hole. Doing so should leave you with a chance to go at a back right Sunday pin, with the creek coming into play if players miss short side. Quail Hollow ranked as the 24th-most difficult course on tour in 2011 (-0.047 strokes under par), so outside of the closing stretch, the rest of the course is there for the taking.

The schedule: The tournament runs Thursday-Sunday. It'll be broadcast on the Golf Channel from 3 to 7 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday; and on CBS from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.

The field: Some of the biggest guns on the PGA Tour are in the field this week, including 18 different major winners. Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and Hunter Mahan headline the field. Other notables include Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk, Keegan Bradley and Cameron Tringale. If you've been complaining that the fields over the last couple of weeks have been a little watered-down, well, now might be a good time to sit down and watch some golf this weekend.