Right on the heels of our Colbert podcast comes this one, a collection of stories focusing on The Golf Channel's exceptional Project '99 web series.

Here's the story: GolfChannel.com selected five stories from one of golf's most memorable years in recent memory, and prepared in-depth accounts of each, in most cases by people who were there at the time. The stories included Tiger vs. Sergio at the PGA, the rise and fall of David Duval, Payne Stewart's tragic passing, Jean Van De Velde's British Open meltdown, and the 1999 Ryder Cup. We spoke with Rex Hoggard and Jay Coffin, authors of two of the pieces, to get their perspective on the year and on their subjects. It's good stuff, and it's all free -- just click right here to get it. 

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Click the link below to play the podcast or right-click it to download, and hit the iTunes site linked below to subscribe. Have at it!

Devil Ball Golfcast, Episode 24 -- The Golf Channel's Project '99

It's Devil Ball Golfcast time, and today we welcome a golfing legend, Jim Colbert. He's one of the more fascinating characters on Tour, having found his stride once he hit the Champions Tour.

Colbert -- it's "Col-bert," not "Col-bear," Comedy Central fans -- won eight times on the PGA Tour and already has 20 wins on the Champions, and he's one of the most eloquent defenders of the Champions arrangement. He's also a rabid Kansas State fan and has his own golf course, Colbert Hills, in Kansas -- the story of which leads to a good story contained herein. He also spent time broadcasting for ESPN, and today kicks back and plays golf when he feels like it. A good life, all the way around.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. Click the link below to play the podcast or right-click it to download, and hit the iTunes site linked below to subscribe. Have at it!

Devil Ball Golfcast, Episode 23 -- Jim Colbert

It's no secret that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson haven't exactly been best buds. You can psychoanalyze that any way you like, but on its surface, the coldblooded, relentless Tiger couldn't be more different from the smiling, surfer-dude Phil. Still, the two are inextricably linked; we've written more than 180 posts mentioning both Tiger and Phil just since August 2008. (Hey, we know what sells 'round here.)

But as Steve Elling notes over at CBS Sports, tensions may be thawing between golf's two titans. They're actually joking with one another, as in this exchange regarding golf in the Olympics:

Q: With golf becoming an official Olympic sport, will you compete to win a medal in 2016?

Woods: Well, I have to qualify first in 2016. Christ, I'll be 40 years old in 2016.

Q: Still young.

Woods: Younger than Phil.

And that was said with humor, lest anyone think differently. Elling notes that there's precedent here -- Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were bitter rivals for decades before finally growing close in their golden years. Perhaps the same thing's happening here between Tiger and Phil.

Of course, Phil would do well not to get too comfortable. He jumps too far out in front of Tiger, and there's no more joking -- just ninja assassin action.

Tiger and Phil: Friendly foes at last [CBS Sports]

We're nearing the end of the 2009 season, and we're taking a look back at how the top 20 on the money list fared. First up: Padraig Harrington.

Coming into 2009: Harrington was the one guy who really took advantage of Tiger Woods' surgically-enabled absence by winning the last two majors of 2008. Then, for some unfathomable reason, he began tinkering with his swing, and the results were catastrophic. He looked like a man lost at sea for the first half of 2009. 

High-water mark: Harrington notched six top-10 finishes, which out of 21 tournaments isn't exactly amazing. But consider the fact that all six of those came in the last six tournaments he played. Changing your mind now? He tied for second at both the Barclays and the WGC-Bridgestone, and was in the hunt at the FedEx Cup until the tournament's final day. 

The low point: The number 8. Harrington had two straight tournaments where he was either in the lead or challenging for it, and in both cases torpedoed his chances with a snowman. Still, considering the fact that he'd practically forgotten which way to hold his club earlier in the year, he was okay with the misfires.

Outlook for 2010: Almost nobody concluded 2009 on a hotter streak than Harrington, so it could be that he's got all his swing problems behind him once and for all. If so, that'd be a welcome change and a welcome return to form for Big Irish. 

Related posts from 2009:
Padraig Harrington adds 30 yards with the Happy Gilmore swing
Twas not a good day to be an Irishman at the Masters
Padraig Harrington got a stopwatch wrapped around his throat

Bringing you the best in golf news and opinion. Get up to date on your way to the first tee. 

• Hangin' with Rickie Fowler. Rickie is my homeboy; is he yours too? He will be soon... [Wei Under Par]

• While you were sleeping, Tiger Woods grabbed himself a share of the HSBC Champions lead, along with Nick Watney. (You slacker.) One stroke back? Phil Mickelson. Yeah, buddy! [Golf Digest]

• Great headline: "Franco flops in Franco at Franco." Carlos Franco shot a 79 in the Carlos Franco Invitational, held at -- yep -- Carlos Franco Country and Golf Club. Nice! [Local Knowledge]

• Gary Player isn't just a champion golfer; he's also a horse breeder. Yes, he is one of the coolest men alive. [LA Times]

• Kevin Streelman is about to get a $1 million check for winning the Kodak Challenge. That rainout at the Viking pretty much washed out anybody's chances of catching him in the season-long best-18-holes tourney. [CBS Sports]

• Inside the mechanics of filling the field with sponsor exemptions at the final full-field event of the season. Good reading. [Golf Channel]

Got a link/tip? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter.

Everybody loves Tiger Woods, but not everyone's quite sure how to react when they see him. Right now, Tiger's over in Shanghai, playing in the HSBC Champions tournament. It's his first visit to China in many years, and as expected, he's drawing rock star-level crowds with every stroke he takes.

Problem is, many in those crowds don't quite know how to behave on the golf course. Eight years ago during Woods' first visit, fans in stiletto heels gouged craters in greens as they chased Woods all over the course. These days, the gallery is a bit less destructive, but no less problematic to golfers, clicking their cameras at Tiger's every move.

Traditionally, photographers don't snap pictures during golfers' backswing; the sudden sound can disrupt the swing, and a swing that's a millimeter off can send the ball flying in unexpected directions. During Tiger's first tee shot on Thursday morning, at least one photographer didn't get the memo:

"The guy in the grandstand basically did a photo sequence. I flinched on it and hit it straight to the right," Tiger said.

Problems continued throughout the round, as Tiger and playing partner Ross Fisher had to deal with a sea of moving faces and constant shutter sounds. Woods finished the round three shots behind leader Nick Watney, while Fisher was five shots back.

Right here, it's worth pointing out something important to those who would make the predictable "why do golfers have to have silence when baseball players can hit curveballs in noisy stadiums?" argument. It's not the noise that's the issue; it's the sudden change in volume. Pro golfers will tell you that they can focus just as easily in silence as they can in noise -- provided the sound remains consistent.

And it's not just true for golfers -- if college basketball fans could ever get their acts together to work in unison, they could totally disrupt opposing free throw shooters by screaming their heads off, then going stone-silent just before the player released the ball.

That said, Tiger and his caddy, Stevie Williams can indeed be divas about this. Williams has quite the rep for being a camera ninja; at the 2002 Skins game, he rolled a fan's camera into a lake, and during the 2004 U.S. Open, he kicked the camera of a professional photographer. Did he get in trouble for his vigilante photographic justice? What do you think?

Don't expect to see any of that kind of behavior this weekend, though. Tiger, Stevie and the rest of the PGA are trying to make a good impression on Asia, and going all John Daly on some poor guy for snapping a shot at the wrong time probably won't get the kind of press that the golf world would like.

After all, these folks just want their own little piece of Tiger. If they wanted to disrupt him, they'd use an air horn. Hypothetically speaking.

Camera-shy Tiger blocks out shattering shutters in Shanghai [Reuters via Yahoo! Sports]

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We're at the end of the decade of the 2000s, and it's time to look back on some of golf's most amazing achievements over that span. Today, we focus on the most amazing LPGA shots of the last 10 years.

1. Karrie Webb's eagle, 18th hole, 2006 Kraft Nabisco. Webb capped one of the best rounds of the decade with a hole-out approach from 116 yards out. Amazingly, Lorena Ochoa also eagled the hole, but Webb won in a playoff. It marked Webb's first win in four years and helped reinvigorate her career.

2. Birdie Kim's bunker birdie, 2005 U.S. Women's Open. This is how you win a tournament: Kim (above) birdied the 18th and final hole of the Open from the bunker, and pursuer Morgan Pressel - then still an amateur - was unable to match her shot.

3. Brittany Lincicome's approach, 18th hole, 2009 Kraft Nabisco. Locked in a match with Kristy McPherson and Cristie Kerr, Lincicome dropped a perfect approach shot on the par-5 final hole to within four feet of the cup. She putted for eagle and won the tournament by a single stroke, capturing her first major.

4. Annika Sorenstam's birdie, 18th hole, 2008 Dubai Ladies Masters. It wasn't an amazing shot on its own; an eight-foot birdie is nice but generally not a particularly memorable shot. But this birdie happened to be the final shot ever made by Annika Sorenstam in her storied career, and so it's only fitting that one of the greatest golfers in history went out with a hole under par.

5. Se Ri Pak's approach, first playoff hole, 2006 McDonald's LPGA. On the first playoff hole, Se Ri Pak placed her approach within four inches of the cup, going on to birdie the hole and knock off Karrie Webb en route to capturing her fifth career major.

6. Momoko Ueda's albatross, final round, 2007 Mizuno Classic. After holding a share of the overnight lead, Ueda put distance between her and her pursuers with a double-eagle at the par-5 7th en route to winning her first LPGA Tour event. She was the first Japanese-born golfer to win on the LPGA Tour in the 2000s.

7. Lorena Ochoa's approach, 18th hole, 2007 ADT. From 161 yards out in an ugly lie, Ochoa dropped a perfect approach onto the green. It rolled to within three feet of the hole, past where Natalie Gulbis, one shot back, waited to take a birdie shot of her own. One long birdie later and the ADT was hers.

8. Annika Sorenstam's tee shot, first hole, 2003 Colonial. It wasn't an exceptional shot - 243 yards down the fairway - but it was her first at a men's event, and it signaled that some women could play every bit as well as the men.

9. Maria Hjorth's ricochet, 2008 McDonald's LPGA. Some shots don't need to be described, they need to be seen, like this gift in the final round of last year's McDonald's LPGA:

10. Annika Sorenstam's eagle, 2003 Skins Game. It wasn't an LPGA event, but in a made-for-TV match against Phil Mickelson, Mark O'Meara and Fred Couples, Sorenstam shone, notching an eagle on the par-5 9th and winning $175,000, the most ever by a player on the first day of the Skins Game.

All right, your turn. Post your thoughts on the greatest LPGA shots of the decade right here. Next up: the men.

Bringing you the best in golf news and info. Get up to date on your way to the first tee.

• Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are capturing most of the headlines in Asia, but there are other guys playing in the event too. Guys like Nick Watney, who shot a course-record-tying 64 to take the Day 1 lead at the HSBC Champions. [PGA.com]

• Michelle Wie will wrap her season at the last Ladies European Tour event of 2009. Can she nab that elusive win in her first season on Tour? [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

• There are only 13 definitive events on the LPGA slate for 2010? Really? Uh-oh. [Golfweek]

• Anthony Kim won't be going to the Dubai World Championships after all, even though he's qualified to take a shot at the $7.5 million bonus pool. [The Golf Channel]

• Cristie Kerr, lookin' good on the cover of VIVmag. [Armchair Golfer]

Got a link/tip? Hit us up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com and follow us on Twitter. 

The ladies of Ireland need to content themselves with gorgeous views of the Emerald Isle and the finest Guinness on the planet, because they ain't getting into the Portmarnock Golf Club in Dublin. The nation's Supreme Court ruled, in a case inspired by challenges against gender discrimination in United States golf clubs, that Portmarnock can continue to exclude women.

A district court had found that the club breached Ireland's Equal Status Act, but the club challenged that ruling, and in a split 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court agreed. The assenting judges -- among them one woman -- found that Irish law lets clubs restrict membership provided that the club's "principal purpose is to cater only for the needs of persons of a particular gender."

However, one of the dissenting judges said that golf wasn't actually a "need" for men any more than women. (The judge may have a point. Anybody who thinks golf isn't a gender-based "need" hasn't ever been married and needed to get the hell out of the house and away from the spouse for a few hours. That goes for men and women.)

The issue, of course, is that golf isn't just about male bonding. If it was, there's no way any sane woman would want to be a part of that. I'm a guy, and my behavior on the golf course and afterward disgusts even me. But golf is also about networking and business relationships, and cutting women out of that cuts them out of a potentially lucrative business angle.

For some, though, it's not about business. Irish TV quoted one unnamed member of the club as saying that he didn't want women on the course because they'd slow down the pace of play. Fair enough, but couldn't you just relax and enjoy the view ... ?

... of the countryside! It's lovely there! What did you think I was saying?

Irish Supreme Court upholds men-only golf club [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

The HSBC Champions begins this week in Shanghai. It's a pleasant little late-season tourney that attracts its share of journeymen and ... what's that? It's got both those guys in the photo above? Wow. Um ... nice!

Yes, the HSBC Champions has ascended to true World Golf Championship status by running out a field that would be the envy of any tournament this side of Augusta. Tiger Woods is there, and so is Phil Mickelson, both of whom are apparently trying to put the ball right through the hole in that Shanghai skyscraper above -- or, barring that, drive one through the skull of somebody standing on the deck of that unfortunately-positioned yacht.

This is a watershed moment in Asian golf; the tournament at Sheshan International Golf Club will bring 15 of the top 20 players in the world, and it's the latest testament to golf's spiraling popularity all over the globe. Players like Mickelson are now turning their eyes to locales outside the United States to play, and by all indications, everyone's interested in seeing this little game get much, much bigger:

"I think that we would love to help grow the game throughout the world," Mickelson said. "Our participation helps grow awareness, it can spark interest in youth to get them started. If we can get kids interested in the game, I think in 15 to 20 years is when we'll see golf prosper in China."

The tournament begins Thursday, and oh yes, we'll have coverage.