A surgical team in Australia has removed four golf balls from a snake who devoured them, apparently believing they were chicken eggs. The balls had been placed under a brood hen by a chicken ranch owner who was trying to encourage the old girl to lay eggs.

Weird Golf Story Of The Week

A New Zealand entrepreneur has invented a new form of golf called Golf Cross which features a football shaped ball and goal posts instead of a hole.

Due to its egg shape, the GolfCross ball flies perfectly straight when placed upright in its special rubber tee cup, essentially making a hook or slice impossible. A player can fade or draw the ball by angling it to the side or perform such unlikely maneuvers as a snake shot, which propels the ball one way in the air and the reverse on landing.

The scoring system is the same as traditional golf, though there are some different rules. For instance, a player whose ball lands in the yard—a designated area around the goal --can angle the goal opening to make his opponent’s final shot more difficult.

Inventor Burton Silver has made a career out of thinking with the right side of his brain. He’s also the author of book such as “Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics,’’ “Kokigami: The Intimate Art of the Little Paper Costume,’’ a description of Japanese paper decoration for the genitals, and `"The Naughty Victorian Hand Book: The Rediscovered Art of Erotic Hand Manipulation.’’

Hoo boy.

The big advantage of the game is that they’re smaller, can cost as little as $100,000 and require much less maintence.

While odd, this appeals to me much more than Frisbee golf.

More in the Bloomberg News

Fresh on the heels of a Japanese Golf Bribe Scandal that threatened to bring down the government, Norway has its own:

OSLO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - More heads may roll in a bribe investigation that has already yielded charges against executives of German engineering firm Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and top Norwegian military officers, Norway’s economic crime unit said.

Crime unit Okokrim this week charged 12 Norwegian military officers with corruption, accusing them of accepting bribes in the form of gifts, expensive dinners and luxurious golfing trips from Siemens AS, the Norwegian unit of the German group.

Read more here.

The Houston Chronicle has the story of the 787 Yard Drive, which was hit by Carl Cooper in a tournament in 1982. He blew it by the 444 yard par 4’s hole and had to use a four iron and an eight iron to get back.

Yes, there was a cart path involved.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all ...

Hobbyist woodcarvers have discovered that the materials in the core of various brands of golf balls make excellent carving materials. They strip the covers off of half the ball, and the work the rubber cores with woodcarving tools. As you can see in the photo, some of them can be quite cute.

There are more photos of carved golf balls here.

If you want to get started, you could begin with some golf ball carving patterns as found here. Woodcarvers.Org has some basic instructions on getting started with golf ball carving.

The Viking Woodcarvers Group’s Newsletter has some instructions on golf ball carving.

Instructions for converting a PVC pipe cutter to a golf ball cover remover.

Amazon has a book on the subject: The Carving Range - A Guide To Carving Golf Balls Or, if you don’t already have the tools, you can get this
golf Ball Carving Kit, (shown at right) which contains everything you’ll need.

For the entrepreneurs among you, I think that there’s a market out there for pre-cut balls. Amazon is selling a BOX OF 3 CUT GOLF BALLS for $10. I’ll also bet that the finished ones would sell to pro shops like hot cakes.

If you just want to buy some carved golf balls, you can find them on EBay: