After a grueling, early-to-bed, doughnut-deprived decade on the straight and narrow, trying to keep up with the chiseled and seemingly infallible Tiger Woods, many of the world's top golfers reached back this season to revive one of the sport's oldest techniques for stress management: party time.

American journeyman Robert Garrigus kicked things off in June when he confessed to Golf Magazine that he and several other golfers used to smoke pot during events on the Nationwide Tour. Then Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland admitted...