A speedboat called the Final Fling hit some rocks, flew into the air and landed in a bunker on the Loch Lomond Course in Scotland.

Torrey Pines doesn’t have a lock on the US Open in golf. As it turns out, there are two professional miniature golf circuits, and this year’s Open is being held in Boothbay, Maine, at the Dolphin Mini Golf Course. The New York Times reports on the sport:

Men and women are ranked nationally and travel to tournaments days in advance to chart the courses, practice eight hours a day and plot strategies for getting an ace on every hole. Some players carry their specially crafted putters in gold cases, and others keep their golf balls in boxes like humidors to regulate temperature and ensure consistent bounces off brick or stone railings.

There’s a 50-page rule book, which includes an antidoping clause, and a dress code: collared shirts and no sandals.

“I know it sounds crazy, but you can’t just walk out there and compete with the mini golf pros,” said Gilchrist, a 62-year-old restaurant owner from Maine. “If some guy from the PGA Tour came to one of our events and tried it without practicing for at least a month, he would be humiliated.”

The average player averages 30 strokes for 18 holes over six rounds.

Sergio Garcia doesn’t stand a chance.

A principal in Montgomery County, Maryland, has caused community outrage by tooling around the high school campus on a golf cart:

The redesigned $87 million Richard Montgomery High School, flagship of the Montgomery County school system, occupies a building that’s as long as two football fields. So Moreno Carrasco, the principal, decided to purchase a golf cart to help him get around.

This has not gone over well with some in the school community.

Parent activists have seized on the golf cart as a symbol of administrative excess in a school system that is asking everyone else to endure cuts. Superintendent Jerry D. Weast has curtailed all but essential spending as the county seeks to close a $297 million budget deficit.

My friends, as a teacher I can tell you that education—like golf—is a walking game.

No one will ever mistake The GolfBlogger for a tree hugger, but this is just ridiculous:

Nationwide Tour golfer Tripp Isenhour

was charged with two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird as a result of the incident, which took place Dec. 12 at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, Fla. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

Isenhour was taping a video called “Shoot Like a Pro” and was interrupted by the noise of the bird, according to news reports. He eventually knocked the bird out of a tree with one of his shots.

According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up.

Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

I will confess to once killing a bird on a driving range, but that was a complete accident. I hit the ball, and the bird darted right in front of it about 50 yards out, exploding in a mass of feathers. I felt really bad.

But deliberately trying to hit a bird—with multiple shots no less—is just barbaric.