Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! (Well, to our American readers, anyway. To the rest of you -- have patience. We're going to be in a turkey-induced coma for most of Thursday.) Hope you have a happy and safe holiday.

We're off Thursday -- see coma line above -- but will be back on Friday, continuing with our Best of the Decade series and some other goodness. (In the meantime, if you're dodging relatives and want to read more from me, click here.)

Enjoy the holiday, all!

Make of this what you will. The National Enquirer, in its Dec. 7 issue, is alleging that Tiger Woods has been stepping out on wife Elin with a "New York party girl" named Rachel Uchitel.

As noted by Sports by Brooks (and read by me while I was standing in line buying the turkey today), the young lady in question has a bit of a rep for chasing married celebs. The Enquirer charges that she and Woods, uh, "met" in New York, Las Vegas and Australia. Matter of fact, the Enquirer apparently tracked down Ms. Uchitel in Australia while Tiger was there for the Masters -- at the same hotel where Tiger was staying! Heavens to betsy!

Look, I'm not giving a bit of credence to this report, I'm just laying it out there for your commenting pleasure.  SBB goes into much more detail about the backstory -- Uchitel apparently lost her fiance in 9/11, but has since dated a whole host of celeb names. As Brooks notes, the idea that Woods would mess around with someone so high-profile is insane, either in reality or on the part of Tiger himself.

So until we get some more proof -- not that we're looking -- let's file this one under "nonstory" and get back to focusing on Jon and Kate!

Enquirer: Tiger Cheating On Wife With 'Party Girl' [Sports By Brooks]

It's almost the end of the 2000s, and Devil Ball is looking back on the best (and worst) figures, matches and storylines of the decade. Today, the best LPGA players of the 2000s.

1. Annika Sorenstam.  Simply the best of the modern era, and one of the best ever to play the game. She ranked #1 every year from 2001 to 2005, and notched 54 wins over the decade.

2.  Lorena Ochoa. Picked up literally where Annika left off, ranking No. 1 on the money list from 2006 to 2008. She's won 27 tournaments in her career and remains the unparalleled top player in the game, though she's now getting a serious challenge from Jiyai Shin.

3. Karrie Webb.  The top player at the turn of the millennium, she's slipped a touch, but still authored one of the best tournaments of the decade at the 2006 Kraft Nabisco. Won 20 tournaments over the 2000s, but that includes some lean years indeed--other than 2006, when she won 5, she only won three tournaments from 2003 through this year.

4. Se Ri Pak. Dominant in the early part of the decade, when she won 13 tournaments over three seasons from 2001-2003. She took 16 tournaments in the 2000s, including three majors, and spent much of the decade ranked second only to Sorenstam.

5. Cristie Kerr. She's labored under the shadow of more dominant players, but she's finished in the top 10 every season after 2003. Over the 2000s, she's won 12 tournaments, including the 2007 U.S. Women's Open, and has been in the mix in almost every major.

6. Paula Creamer. She's been in the top 10 every year of her career except 2006, when she was ranked #11. She's won eight tournaments, but is still chasing that elusive first major.

7. Jiyai Shin. Highly successful in the KLPGA, with 20 wins, before making the jump to the LPGA, she's nonetheless won six tournaments in the last two years, and ended her very first LPGA season ranked #1. Would be much higher on this list with a little bit more playing time in her past.

8. Suzann Pettersen. Has come on strong late in the decade, finishing in the top seven the last three year. She's won six tournaments over that span, five of which came in 2007, including the LPGA Championship.

9. Juli Inkster. A consistent top-10 finisher around the turn of the millennium, she's nonetheless recorded four top-10 seasonal finishes and won nine tournaments in the 2000s.

10. Meg Mallon. Another golfer whose best years came before the 2000s, but she still won two majors in the decade and recorded two top-10 seasonal finishes. 

Also receiving consideration: Angela Stanford, Yani Tseng, Seon Hwa Lee. And now it's your turn. Who did we miss? Who should be ranked higher/lower? Have at it!

Time again for another Golfcast featuring me chatting with Dogs That Chase Cars' Shane Bacon. Today's topic: caddying at a tournament where absolutely nobody feels like playing! Yes, Shane was at the LPGA Tour Championship, and he didn't have the best of times there. He takes us through what it's like to sit around and do nothing for days on end, waiting to see how your tournament life will play out. From there, we segue to talking about golfing with the family and the horror that is iron-head covers. It's a good way to cruise into the Thanksgiving holiday.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. And if you've got a question or comment for Shane and I to kick around, call our Skype line at 678-389-9173 and leave your message. Click the little arrow 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 26 -- Strolling soggy fairways

You've done the Happy Gilmore golf swing, right? Please tell me you have. Please don't say you've never set a ball on a tee, taken five steps back, then slap-shotted the ball into the stratosphere. (It'll add 10 percent to your drive -- Padraig Harrington proved it.)

Of course, if you manage to pull this off without snapping either your driver's shaft or your own wrists, you've got to deal with the fact that you've just rocketed a ball off the tee with no idea of where it could end up. Best case: you just lost a ball. Worst case: you're in Nova Scotia and you're gonna be in trouble with the law.

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog brings us the story of Bezanson v. Hayter, a case in which the defendant Happy Gilmore'd a shot right into the wrist of the plaintiff. Said plaintiff with said wrecked wrist is now unable to do his work, which apparently involves a chain saw and is therefore by definition cooler than anything you or I do.

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court determined that the defendant "violated his standard of care to other golfers," and that the Happy Gilmore swing is not a "natural risk" of golfing. Come on, Nova Scotia! Next you're gonna say that we can't use those exploding gag golf balls on the tee! You're going to take that laff riot away from us?

As the WSJ notes, this wasn't just a case of a couple dudes swingin' away on the course. No, this was a bachelor party, one which involved beer, pot and unsanctioned cart behavior. The defendant noted that he "consumed nine beers and half a pint of Baja Rosa tequila," and in my humble opinion the court should show him some leniency just for being able to stand upright after that, much less golf.

Anyway, there you have it. If you're going to do the Happy Gilmore swing on your Turkey Day outing, don't do it in Nova Scotia. And if you do hit somebody, don't leave any witnesses.

A post about beer, golf, pot, Hollywood and Canadian tort law [WSJ Law Blog]

It's the end of the decade of the 2000s, and we're looking back on some of golf's most memorable moments. Today, it's the best shots by the best player in the game. Tiger fans, enjoy. 

1. 2005 Masters, 16th hole. We called this the best shot of the decade a week ago, and our opinion hasn't changed. Check it:

2. 2002 PGA Championship, 18th hole. The one shot we don't have video from, but it's here because Tiger has ranked it as the No. 1 shot he's ever hit in his professional career. He was 202 yards from the pin in a fairway bunker amid 20-mph wins. Not only did he clear the bunker, he stuck the ball to within 12 feet of the hole. A beauty that you'll have to picture in your mind's eye.

Read More »

Tiger Woods returned to Stanford University, his alma mater, on Saturday night to be inducted into Stanford's athletic Hall of Fame at halftime of the Stanford-Cal game. Tiger is accustomed to entire continents paying homage to him, so when a crowd of rowdy Cal students decided to boo the Great One, he was visibly flustered. (Especially with Stevie Williams nowhere nearby to defend him.) Here, check the video:

"The second half is ours," Tiger finished, a bit lamely, but alas, it wasn't to be -- Cal beat Stanford 34-28 in the latest installment of The Big Game. It was no lateral-through-the-band classic, but still -- not a bad new chapter to add to Big Game lore.

Huh. Somebody clicking a camera in your backswing probably doesn't sound so bad now, does it, Tiger? 

(And since the comments are already beginning -- Tiger was booed because of the rivalry between Cal and Stanford. It has nothing to do with jealousy or politics or race or anything else; it was school spirit, plain and simple.)

Tiger Woods Booed At Stanford [Huffington Post]

We're at the end of the 2009 season, and we're taking a look back at how the top 20 on the money list fared. Next up: David Toms.

Coming into 2009: It's been a long dry spell for Toms, who hasn't won since the 2006 Sony Open. The former PGA Championship winner hasn't placed in the top 10 in a major since 2007, and had seemed off his game for years entering the year. 2009 wasn't exceptional, but it was an improvement.

High-water mark: Toms had seven top-10 finishes and three top-3s, topped by a June sequence in which he finished tied for second in two of three tournaments, the St. Jude Classic and the Travelers. He was five and three strokes off the lead at each one, respectively. 

The low point: Unfortunately, the third of those three tournaments above was the U.S. Open, in which Toms missed the cut. And immediately after the Travelers, Toms missed the cut at the John Deere and the British Open. For the rest of the year, his finishes lingered around the 30s, broken only by a tie for 13th at the Tour Championship.

Outlook for 2010: Toms is still looking for a Hall of Fame berth -- he missed out on the Hall this year -- and so he's got incentive to keep the hammer down in 2010 and beyond.

Related David Toms posts from 2009:
PGAs past: Recalling David Toms' last-second 2001 triumph
The Clown's Mouth: Toms out of Hall running

Golf or basketball: which sport should President Obama follow?

The Wall Street Journal today focuses on a question of growing national importance: has the president ditched hoops in favor of golf?

Putting aside the resounding "who cares?" contingent, it's not an inconsequential question, at least from a public relations perspective. President Obama gained notoriety on the campaign trail as a regular guy who'd throw on some sweats and run up and down the court just like any other aging ex-jock. He apparently still has enough game to knock off the NCAA women's champion UConn Huskies in an impromptu game of P.I.G. 

But since he's taken office, he's played much more golf than basketball -- 25 rounds to seven games, according to the poor soul whose job it is to keep track of such minutiae. And that's apparently upset some people who'd like to see the president playing more basketball. (Really, though, can a president do anything without upsetting somebody?)

"The fact that he isn't playing [basketball]...is a metaphor for those people who think he's gotten soft, backed off of his promises, sold out," the WSJ quoted Claude Johnson, founder of the website Baller-in-Chief. "When President Obama goes back to basketball, that will be a sign that we haven't lost the original guy."

Yeah, perhaps. Or perhaps this is reaching just a wee bit too much for a story. Thing is, presidents golf. A lot. Dwight Eisenhower played Augusta National so frequently he's got a tree named after him. Bill Clinton enjoyed the game, though -- make of this what you will -- he took so many "extra" shots that his playing partners began calling them "Billigans." George W. Bush played plenty of golf early on in his administration, though he took grief for mixing pleasure with business (the infamous "now watch this drive" moment) and later stopped playing during wartime.

I understand the need for a president to be discreet about these kinds of activities; the last thing that someone who's struggling with his or her day-to-day life needs to see is the Commander-in-Chief strolling a golf course and laughing. Not quite the tighten-the-belt-and-work-harder image you want to project, you know? 

Still, I'm all for the president getting out and playing a few rounds. Guy's got a tough job; least he ought to be able to get out of the gig is a couple hours on the course. If I were president -- and this is one reason of many I'm not -- I'd have tee times on call at Pebble Beach, Augusta and Sawgrass. Any president has earned the right to big-time his way onto the country's marquee courses. 

Having said that, President Obama may not want to give up on hoops entirely. Put aside the whole "break the ankles of your opposition" thing; the Wizards are awful this year, and he could surely get a gig as a swingman coming off the bench. Would make more money than his current job, too.

Okay, your turn. Which sport should the president play? Or should he leave the games to others and work, work, work?

Quietly, the President finds that golf is no slam dunk [Wall Street Journal]

Lee Westwood holds an infamous place in recent golf history as the man with the best view of two of the greatest golf duels of the last couple years. He was the last guy out of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines before Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate began their epic duel, and a year later was the last guy out of the historic Tom Watson-Stewart Cink playoff at the 2009 British Open.

This weekend, though, there was nobody else even close to Westwood, and he made sure that he was the last man standing at the Dubai World Championships. He claimed both the tournament and the winner's check for the Race to Dubai, easily getting past Rory McIlroy along the way.

Spurred on by his caddy's advice to "go out and bully other people," Westwood did exactly that -- well, as much as you can bully somebody on the golf course.

And he got all up in McIlroy's head. The 20-year-old wunderkind couldn't come close to hanging with Westwood, and eventually got so ticked at the way his round was going that he plowed his club through a sign. And it helped; he reeled off six birdies over the next nine holes. But it wasn't enough, and now Westwood owns the day.

"Rory is only 20--I can't even remember what it was like to be 20--and he will have many more chances ahead of him to win the money list," Westwood said. 

True enough. Plus, Westwood has that killer trophy. Swing that thing around, and he'll be a better bully than ever.

Lee Westwood of England wins Dubai, money titles [AP via Yahoo! Sports]