Nuts about golf
James L. Malone III, the 2007 Golf Nut of the Year, picks up a ball at the Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Va., in early February. He retired in 2006, at age 58, with enough free time and resources to pursue his hobby like few others. (Joshua Roberts / For The Times)
Malone putts on the 18th green at the Farmington Country Club in Virginia in early February. He has an artificial putting green in the basement of his Connecticut home and was practicing on it almost immediately after his prostate surgery in late 2006. (Joshua Roberts / For The Times)
Mike Noyes of Fountain Valley was the runaway winner of the 2000 Golf Nut of the Year award. He won points by chipping and putting within a week of quintuple bypass surgery on a three-hole green hed spent $10,000 to build in his backyard, complete with dry creek bed, ball washer and bar stools. (Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times)
