Calling George Costanza! and other top 10 oddball golf stories from 2010

December 31 -- Golf in 2010 had its share of moments -- from the memorable (Phil Mickelson’s shot from the pine straw on 13 at the Masters) to the bizarre (Dustin Johnson’s gaffe from the yup-it’s-a-bunker at the PGA Championship).

And then there were the truly weird stories involving golf courses, carts, clubs, balls, an oil spill, an assortment of body parts, and even some stiffs. Here, then, are 10 of the somewhat golf-related oddball stories from the year about to pass (viewer discretion is advised):

Watery grave. Preliminary autopsy reports showed that the man pulled from a vehicle engulfed in a water hazard on a South Carolina golf course died of drowning. On Wednesday, divers recovered the body of 47-year-old Donald Joe Raven man from a Honda SUV immersed in a pond at Man O’ War Golf Course in Myrtle Beach. Police were investigating the incident but suspected no foul play. "We're not exactly sure what happened," deputy coroner Darris Fowler told the Sun News after a course maintenance worker spied the waterlogged SUV sometime after 7 a.m. on December 29.

Grisly find. An Irene Country Club caretaker happened upon a woman’s severed and decomposing left arm in the muck near the 11th hole of the Centurion, South Africa, golf course. As of December 28, police, who believed heavy rains washed the limb down a river that runs through the course, were searching for a body and someone to finger for the crime, according to Independent Online. 

Tee it up. Fort Myers, Fla., sheriffs arrested Vanessa Rayner for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after the 19-year-old teed off with a golf club on a bedroom door, according to ABC-7.com. The attacker picked up the stick after another resident of the house relieved Rayner of a knife with which she sliced the hand of her boyfriend, Timothy Williams, 34, whom she suspected of infidelity. No word on whether Rayner used a fairway metal or a hybrid.

Ah, golf course living. Folks in McMinnVille, Ore., were none too keen about  shotgun-toting hunters knocking off geese on the golf course bordering their property. Bayou Golf Course co-owner Greg Brown put out a contract on the pooping pests, which did not go down well with neighbors, according to KATU.com. "You don't expect to get up one day and look out over your deck and see people killing things off in your backyard," Claudia Williams told KATU. Think about that before your next shotgun start.

Replace your divots. In yet another case of SUVs-gone-wild, a 42-year-old woman drove her Mitsubishi Montero into a lake near the 15th hole at Lubbock (Texas) Country Club. Assistant superintendent Greg Leach rescued Brenda Tanner from the pond at about 8:45 a.m on December 27. "First I thought she was dead," Leach told KCBD.com. Police believe alcohol may have been a factor when Tanner, who was in critical condition following the mishap, apparently "launched" her vehicle into the drink the night before, taking a chunk out of the rough, according to KCBD. Tanner likely neglected to replace her divot.

Hang up and drive. Scotts Bluff County (Neb.) Court jurors awarded Kirk Begley $281,000 for injuries he sustained when his golf partner, Daniel Harkins, ran into him with a golf cart, according to the AP. Harkins was chatting on his cell phone in August 2008 when he plowed into Begley, pancaking him against another cart. Wonder if Harkins yelled "Fore!" before the crash?

Fully loaded. You know how you can win that sparkling new car parked by the tee if you nail a hole-in-one during your club’s member-guest? Paul Verdecchia suggests you not buckle up just yet. After the 53-year-old Pinehurst, N.C., resident aced the 172-yard 14th at Southern Pines Golf and Country Club in June, he figured to drive away in the 2010 Nissan Altima on display during the Elk Lodge’s annual charity tourney. When the car dealer refused to hand over the keys, Verdecchia took him and the Elks to court for breach of contract. The two defendants also sued each other. "I never expected to hit the hole-in-one to get the car and then, after I did it, I never expected that the parties involved would turn around and say, 'You're not going to get the car,’" Verdecchia told the Fayetteville Observer. But he gets to keep the ace, right?

Hog wild. If they could, officials at Sebastian (Fla.) Municipal Golf Course would bar the pigs who tore up the turf on the 11th and 14th greens from ever returning to their track. Unfortunately, the animals doing the damage were not your garden-variety frustrated golfers; actual wild hogs ripped up some 300 square feet of grass to get to earthworms below. Unless they stop fertilizing, there’s not much course workers can do about 750-pound boars running amok on the links. "Golf courses are rich in the things that pigs love to eat," the Humane Society’s Ilka Daniel told TCPalm.com. "The better job we do with the grass, the more we fertilize it and the better it grows, the more they want to eat it."

Merry Christmas. Yuba County (Calif.) sheriffs arrested Scott Patrick Ferguson, 31, for going all Elin Nordegren on a neighbor Christmas morning. Lance Steagall allegedly angered Ferguson when he "peeled out" of a driveway, spitting gravel on Ferguson’s car, according to the Appeal-Democrat. Nasty words ensued, Ferguson’s wife shooed her husband back inside, and he came back with a golf club with which he hit Steagall several times about the head and torso. Steagall was treated for face and chest wounds while Ferguson wondered how many strokes to assess himself as he awaited bail at the Yuba County Jail.

Calling George Costanza! Perhaps the goofiest golf story of the year was BP’s use of golf balls and other detritus in an attempt to limit the spewing of millions of gallons of toxic gunk into the Gulf of Mexico from its busted oil well. As any ardent "Seinfeld" fan knows, hitting golf balls into the ocean is bad for sea creatures. Yet, 16 years after George Costanza saved a whale’s life by plucking a Titleist from the mammal’s blow hole, BP resorted to a Hail Mary to stop an environmental hazard of unmatched proportions. Who could possibly have foreseen that taking a "junk shot" -- shooting golf balls and other everyday crap like knotted rope and shredded rubber tires into a busted piece of gear called a blowout preventer -- wouldn’t work to halt the greatest oil spill in U.S. history?