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    Devil Ball Golf
    • Motorola's MOTOACTV Golf EditionWelcome to Devil Ball's Proving Ground, where we put the latest golf equipment through its paces. Today we take a peek at Motorola's new GPS golf watch, the MOTOACTV Golf Edition.

      There's a misconception about GPS golf units that needs to be cleared up: Simply knowing your yardage won't make you a better player. I know, this probably comes as a shock to a lot of you.

      However, just because a GPS unit (or rangefinder) won't make you a better player, that doesn't mean it can't help you get through your round with a few less headaches. There's no question knowing the exact yardage to the pin, or the turn in the dogleg, can be beneficial. And with the increases in GPS technology over the last few years, it's never been easier to get around the course without having to send out a search party for a sprinkler head with the yardage.

      While rangefinders still seem to be the preferred method, there's been an increase in GPS watches in recent years, like Motorola's MOTOACTV Golf Edition.

      Instead of having to fumble around for your rangefinder on every hole, the watch allows you to walk up to your ball, check your yardage, and pull the trigger in a matter of seconds.

      The watch certainly looked good when it showed up in the mail. But like all of the products we test out, the only thing that mattered was how it performed on the course. Here's out review.

      Initial thoughts

      If Batman played golf, this would most likely be his preferred GPS option. The all black watch looks pretty slick straight out of the box and comes with a matching black band that can adjust for wrists of all sizes.

      The nice thing about this watch as opposed to some of the others on the market is that if you happen to be the kind of guy who doesn't like wearing something on your wrist when you play, it gives you the option to take GPS unit off the band and attach it to a small clip that can attach to your belt or the side of your pocket.

      The MOTOACTV has a color touch screen that allows you to track all of your progress during a round (it has a 20,000 course database), from the number of miles you walked to your score on each hole. Aside from golf, the watch can also track recent bike rides to runs around the block.

      Another nice addition? You can also add MP3's to the watch, giving you the option to listen to some tunes during your next round.

      So while the watch is definitely geared towards golfers, it can also act as your go-to when you exercise. When you're shelling out a couple hundred bucks for a GPS golf watch, having one that can do more than one task is a plus.

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    • Some outstanding gamesmanship here from many of the PGA Tour's best as they recover from some ridiculously difficult situations with grace and style. Naturally, Phil Mickelson makes the list twice. However, this list doesn't include majors, so British Open bank-shots and Bubba-created Augusta miracles don't make the cut. Still, good stuff, well worth a few minutes of your work time. Enjoy.

    • Wall's rolling with one of the Golf Boyz. — Golf BoyzSo in an attempt to inject a bit more life and interest into tournaments, and because we're all inveterate gamblers who are one bad card from being out on the streets, Jay Busbee and I are playing a golf version of a football suicide pool: We each pick one golfer per tournament and see how they do against each other, straight up. Victory over the other guy gets one point, victory in the tournament gets three points, and a tie between two of the three lands you half a point. (Double for the majors.) And when we burn a golfer, he's done for the year. We turn our attention to the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

      Wall: I hate burning this guy before the second major of the year, but I have to take Rickie Fowler. Aside from the breakthrough win at Quail Hollow, he posted a runner-up finish the following week at the Players Championship. That's three Top 10s in his last three starts, which is reason enough for me to take the hot hand. He's never had a high finish at Colonial, but over the last two years he's posted rounds of 63 and 64. I like his chances, especially with the newfound confidence. Let's keep the Showdown rout going!

      Busbee: Zach Johnson's my pick this week. His last tour victory came right here at Colonial, so he knows the course. He's quietly putting together a heck of a season, with two runnerup finishes in his last three starts. (They bracket a T69 at the Wells Fargo, but let's ignore that.) He's primed to bust out his first win in two years this weekend. Or at least beat whoever you're running out. Please...?

      Last week: Once again, Busbee's selection didn't even make the weekend, as Adam Scott posted 4-over at the HP Byron Nelson Championship. Wall's pick of Jason Day finished T-9, giving him his second consecutive point. Do I smell a blowout coming?

      Current score: Wall - 3.5, Busbee - 1.5.

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    • Well, hey there, Jason Dufner. Welcome aboard. (Getty Images)

      It's time for the latest Devil Ball Power Rankings, our look at who's up and who's down in the world of golf. Your panelists are an esteemed group of the world's greatest golf journalists ... or so our mothers tell us. Devil Ball Golf's Jay Busbee and Jonathan Wall, CBS Sports/Eye on Golf's Shane Bacon, and Golf Channel/Golf Talk Central's Ryan Ballengee bring you these, our rankings. Enjoy, and read on to see how you can be a part of the festivities.

      1. Luke Donald. Does Luke seem like a No. 1 golfer to you? He needs to get a little more feisty. Brag a little more, you know? Own it. Last week: T1.

      2. Rory McIlroy. Rory and Caroline Wozniacki play tennis together. That's so cute. Good thing he's not dating a pop star; last thing we need is to hear Rory screeching out some karaoke. Last week: 3.

      3. Matt Kuchar. Poor Kuch. The guy's receding hairline startles us every time he takes off his cap. Better that, though, than a rug. Unless it's one of those Rory wigs. Last

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    • Caddie Ruben Yorio and TaylorMade club technician Wade Liles discuss some changes to Y.E. Yang's driver.

      Follow Jonathan Wall on Twitter at @jonathanrwall

      Fort Worth, Texas — It's Tuesday afternoon and TaylorMade's Tour Van is humming. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial won't start for another couple of days, but for TaylorMade's two full-time club technicians, Wade Liles (the "face" of the van) and Henry Luna, the week is already in full swing.

      PGA Tour winner Sean O'Hair stands off to the side, waiting for the loft and lie on his irons to be dialed in. About 15 minutes later Rory Sabbatini stops in for a minute (literally) to grind his wedges before heading back to the range. And within a couple minutes of his departure, Liles is discussing some tweaks to Brian Gay's 3-wood, before adjusting and re-gripping a RBZ driver for Y.E. Yang.

      This isn't a busy time of the day for the TaylorMade Tour Van. Far from it. If anything, it's just another typical Tuesday on the road for Liles and Luna, who seem to fly around the van's three work stations, re-shafting at one, before moving on to the next to grind a wedge.

      Rory Sabbatini grinding his own wedge.

      "We set this truck up on Sunday at the next tour stop to get everything ready for the start of the work week," Liles said. "Then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it's pretty much like NASCAR. We're tuning up everything for the week, adjusting it for the course, weather conditions ... anything that we believe will give our guys an edge out there."

      For most golf fans who frequent PGA Tour events starting on Thursday, the tour van is a mythical figure. Most know it exists, but by the time you arrive, TaylorMade's Tour Van, like the rest of the club manufacturers, is long gone — headed down the road to the next stop.

      "A lot of people don't even know these trailers exist out here," Liles said. "In NASCAR, the pit crews are highly visible in the industry, but in this industry it's not. We're almost kept a secret. We're in the ropes or under the trees where no one can see us."

      While fans might not see the work being done behind the scenes each week, Liles and his crew are a critical part of the team. They work hand in hand on a weekly basis with all of TaylorMade's staffers, not only helping them tweak their clubs, if need be, but also acting as a sounding board if they're in between drivers or wedges.

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    • Colonial Country Club / Getty ImagesIt's tournament time! The PGA Tour moves to Fort Worth this week for the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club, the second leg of the Texas two-step through the DFW Metroplex. Here's a tournament primer to get you prepared for the week.

      The course: One of the most historic courses on the PGA Tour, Colonial hosts the longest running non-major tournament held at one site. The fact that Ben Hogan was a member here tells you everything you need to know about the layout: It's built for solid ball-strikers. At only 7,204 yards, there aren't many holes on the course that require driver off the tee. With only two par-5s, Colonial puts premium on scoring by hitting as many fairways and greens as possible. There's a reason why some of the shorter hitters on tour (Zach Johnson, David Toms, Steve Stricker) have thrived here in the past. Like Harbour Town Golf Links (site of the Heritage), being dialed in with your short irons is critical at Colonial. With tress lining a majority of the holes, getting aggressive is the wrong play. The course has undergone some changes in the last year to toughen up the layout, including adding some well-positioned fairway bunkers to deter golfers from pulling driver and cutting off the dogleg. While they may come in handy during the tournament week, they frustrated Phil Mickelson to the point that the two-time winner pulled out of the tournament and hinted that he might not return in the future. If there's one hole to watch at Colonial, it's par-4 fifth hole. At 481 yards, it requires the most precise drive of the day. Anything left finds a ditch and trees running along the hole; the right side has the Trinity River to contend with. Even a deep poke could leave a long approach to a tricky green. The course ranked as the 22nd-most difficult on tour last year with a stroke average of +0.082 over par.

      The schedule: The tournament runs Thursday-Sunday. It'll be broadcast on the Golf Channel from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Thursday and Friday; and on CBS from 3 to 6 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday.

      The field: Matt Kuchar (No. 5) and Hunter Mahan (6) are the only members of the Official World Golf Ranking top-10 in the field this week. But that doesn't mean the tournament is lacking big names. Rickier Fowler, David Toms (defending champion), Zach Johnson, Jason Dufner, Ryo Ishikawa, Louis Oosthuizen and Geoff Ogilvy are also teeing it up at Colonial.

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    • Rory McIlroy's getting a bobblehead. — San Francisco GiantsRory McIlroy may not be a fan of the San Francisco Giants (or baseball for that matter), but the Bay Area team plans to immortalize the 23-year-old in bobblehead form anyway during a game against the Astros later this year.

      If you're wondering why the Giants are even giving McIlroy some bobblehead love in the first place, the game happens to take place the same week as the U.S. Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco, so the marketing gimmick makes sense.

      No word yet if he's going to show up for Irish Heritage Night or throw out the first pitch, but as defending U.S. Open champ, I don't think anyone would blame him if he passed on the game.

      Even if he does decide to pass, I'd ask the Giants for a couple of those bobbleheads. Unlike some of the awful ones out there on the market, this one looks pretty darn good. Well done, Giants! Now if you could just learn how to correctly spell the name of your hometown. (See the opener of the advertisement.)

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    • Jason Dufner, loving life. (Getty Images)Welcome to the new season of Teeing Off, where Devil Ball editor Jay Busbee and head writer Jonathan Wall take a day's topic and smack it all over the course. Suggest a future topic by writing jay.busbee@yahoo.com, or hit us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @jonathanrwall. Today, we consider whether the first win is the toughest.

      Busbee: So Jason Dufner wins for the second time in three weeks! Bravo, Mr. Dufner. Now, that brings up the old question: is the first win the toughest? For some cats, it absolutely is. For me, I won my first Tour event at age 14. (You're not going to find me in the record books. I was scrubbed from the official record.) But SERIOUSLY, let's kick this around. What do you think makes it easier to get that second win after the first?

      Wall: So you won a tournament at 14, huh? I may have to do some digging to find the lost photos of a young Mr. Busbee in his Jack Nicklaus getup, hoisting a trophy over his head. Getting back on track, I think the easy answer is that the pressure to win your first is no longer there. Sure, you're going to feel the butterflies down the stretch, but you now have a newfound confidence that when you get in the same situation again, you can close things out. The first win is definitely the toughest, and as we've seen from Jason Dufner over the last 22 days, it does get a heck of a lot easier the next time around.

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    • Some fine shots from the weekend's play, spotlit by Nick Flanagan's amazing bank shot off the hospitality tent. Why was that No. 5, huh? But plenty more from friends like Jason Dufner and Phil Mickelson. Enjoy.

    • Nick Flanagan: Oversized check collector. — Twitter @4FlanaganNick Flanagan had one heck of a Sunday at the Nationwide Tour's BMW Charity Pro-Am. After making birdie on the final hole of the tournament by bouncing his ball off the grandstand behind the green to within 15 feet of the cup (you can check out the highlights here), the Aussie went on to secure the tournament in a three-hole playoff over Cameron Percy for his first win since 2007.

      Needless to say, it was a big day for Mr. Flanagan. He not only pocketed a cool $108,000, but also walked away with another sweet parting gift: the oversized check. Yep, just like "Happy Gilmore," Nick Flanagan appears to be an oversized check collector.

      After his round, he tweeted the above photo from his car with the following message:

      I always wondered what happened to those oversized checks. I guess we now have our answer. The only question that remains is if those things can be deposited at the bank. I'd sure like to see Nick Flanagan attempt to put that thing in his account.

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