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    • Guess who's back? (Getty Images)

      It's time for the Devil Ball Power Rankings, our weekly 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.

      1. Rory McIlroy. Rory's got a careful-what-you-wish-for thing going on. Sure, he likes his girlfriend and he likes sports. But I'll bet Caroline Wozniacki gets very upset if he doesn't want to watch her play all the time. "You like sports! I play sports! Come on, Rors!" Eh, he'll be able to escape to Augusta soon. (3 first-place votes). Last week: T1.

      2. Luke Donald. There's a decent chance Donald could break through this year and win the Masters or more. There's also a decent chance he could fall just short. He's the first of the post-Tiger All-Stars who rise high in the rankings without

      Read More »from Power Rankings: Tiger Woods returns to the fold
    • You might need to take a drop. (ABC Gold Coast)

      Sick and tired of all the Tiger Woods coverage? Careful what you wish for!

      Big news out of Kyogle, Australia, as a snake devoured what it thought were chicken eggs. Turns out that they weren't eggs at all, but golf balls.

      Yep, the coastal carpet snake, nicknamed "Callaway" (get it?) by the staff at a local veterinary hospital, went and got himself a gutful of golf balls. And since they don't break down, or pass, as easily as eggs, well, ol' Callaway was in a bit of a pickle.

      "Their vision is not that great," said veterinarian Andrew Hill. "If the egg is sitting under a chicken it's most likely to be an egg. These guys don't know too much about the sport of golf." What? They don't even have an opinion on Tiger's return? How is that even possible?

      Anyway, Callaway will get opened up and the balls will be extracted -- this counts as an unplayable lie -- and he'll be set loose in the wild, confused and hungry.

      So what is it with Australia and golf? You've got sharks on golf courses,

      Read More »from Snake mistakes golf balls for eggs, eats them anyway
    • Yes, yes, you know Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational. You've probably heard a thing or two about it by now. But he wasn't the only one who had a solid tournament at Bay Hill; check out some of the gems here from Ernie Els, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson and Ryan Moore. Fine work, gentlemen.

    • Monday's New York Post / Newseum

      If you've ever had the opportunity to read the New York Post before, then you know the paper is known for its outlandish headlines that usually cross the "Is this appropriate?" line on a daily basis.

      So it should come as no surprise that when Tiger Woods broke his two-plus-year PGA tournament win drought on Sunday at Bay Hill, the Post decided to put Tiger on the cover.

      And after covering Hydrant-gate, you just knew the paper wouldn't let sleeping dogs lie and go with the standard congratulatory headline. Instead, the Post went with "Look out, Ladies!," hinting that Woods' win was not only a turning point in his career ... but in his love life.

      Of course they went there. The headline, while tame by Post standards, was still cringe-worthy. I'm going to guess this cover won't be going on the wall in Woods' office.

      Read More »from New York Post kinda, sorta congratulates Tiger Woods on his win
    • Tiger Woods / Getty Images

      Sizing up the TV coverage from the Arnold Palmer Invitational ... and away we go.

      When Tiger Woods' final putt dropped on Saturday afternoon and he walked off the 18th green nursing a one-shot lead over Graeme McDowell, NBC knew exactly what was at stake going into Sunday's final round.

      After 924 days, the network was on the verge of covering one of the most highly anticipated final rounds since last year's U.S. Open, when Rory McIlroy made history at Congressional, blitzing the field by an impressive eight shots.

      [Eric Adelson: Will Tiger Woods' 'resurrection' be enough to satiate public?

      It was historic stuff -- not just because Tiger Woods was ending a two-plus year winless drought in official events, but also because NBC had the opportunity to wrap a nice bow on the most tumultuous stretch in Woods' life.

      Sure, plenty of other people would talk about what the win meant for Woods after the final putt had dropped, but NBC had the opportunity to be the network of record, if you will.

      Like an announcer trying to nail the championship-winning call, NBC's Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller had to nail the moment on the 18th. Because whether they liked it or not, Woods' final hole was going to be one people would remember.

      So let's set the scene: Tiger coverts his par putt on the 17th and starts to walk off the green with an expressionless look on his face. Johnny Miller sizes up the magnitude of the final hole, albeit in an awkward sort of way.

      Read More »from GolfTube: NBC sums up Tiger Woods’ last couple of years in one hole
    • Tiger Woods / Getty ImagesLike Rory McIlroy's reign as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, his run as the favorite to win the Masters didn't last very long.

      [Eric Adelson: Will Tiger Woods' 'resurrection' be enough to satiate public?]

      With his win at Bay Hill, Tiger Woods was tabbed the new favorite to win at Augusta by Las Vegas Hotel and Casino Sportsbook (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton), which released updated odds on Sunday evening.

      [Related: Tiger Woods heads to Augusta with a head of steam and look of triumph

      Woods, a 7/1 pick to win at the start of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, moved to the front of the pack with his emphatic win and now stands as the 4/1 favorite to win the first major of the year.

      With the Azaleas in bloom at Augusta National and Woods officially atop Vegas' Masters odds, it feels like everything's right in the golf world.

      [Related: Tiger Woods just made the best season in golf a whole lot better]

      Here's a rundown of Las Vegas Hotel and Casino's top 10 to win the Masters (and a couple of interesting Tiger and Rory prop bets):

      RORY McILROY 5/1
      TIGER WOODS 4/1
      PHIL MICKELSON 10/1
      LEE WESTWOOD 18/1
      LUKE DONALD 15/1
      ADAM SCOTT 25/1
      JASON DAY 40/1
      DUSTIN JOHNSON 30/1
      NICK WATNEY 40/1
      MARTIN KAYMER 60/1

      The rest of the odds come after the jump.

      Read More »from Tiger Woods now the favorite in Vegas to win the Masters
    • Tiger Woods / Getty ImagesLet's be honest, we're all incredibly busy. Nobody has time to sit down and watch four rounds of televised golf coverage -- unless, of course, you watch TV for a living, and if that's the case, please email us your number. So in an effort to condense the tournament coverage for you into a few quick hits, here are five things we learned from the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

      Tiger Woods still knows how to close — It's hard to believe we ever questioned whether one of the greatest closers in the history of golf could shut the door on Sunday afternoon. But given Woods' weekend struggles when he was in contention recently, it was impossible to consider him a near-lock to walk away with his seventh win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Despite the questions, Woods looked rock-solid for most of the day, shaking off an early three-putt bogey before closing out the front nine with four birdies in a seven hole stretch. That pretty much sealed the deal for Woods, who was able to coast for much of the back nine, and kept the mistakes to a minimum. He's now won 38 of 40 PGA Tour events when holding the outright lead after 54-holes. We all wondered if the struggles at Pebble and Abu Dhabi were a harbinger for Sunday's final round, but once again, Tiger proved that he's about as sure as they come when leading on Sunday. With his first official win in more than two years under his belt, we can officially stop talking about his final round issues.

      It's time to give Sean Foley his due — Tiger Woods certainly deserves all the credit for Sunday's win, but swing coach Sean Foley gets a nod for the work he's put in over the last couple of years with the 14-time major winner. After being questioned for his decision to rework Woods' swing early on, it's clear, based on what we've seen over the last year, that Foley was right all along. Woods' active lower body -- which was a big part of his swing, and injury issues -- is now incredibly quiet, and for the first time in awhile, he appears to have the swing under complete control. The stinger, distance control, and trajectory are all back. Foley's all but faded into the background after getting into a verbal battle with Hank Haney last year, but it's hard not to look at his body of work and be impressed. He's certainly working wonders with three of the top players in the sport.

      Ernie Els now finds himself in a must-win situation — It wasn't nearly as bad as the missed four-footer on the 72nd hole at the Transitions Championship, but Ernie Els' bogey on the par-3 17th, on Sunday, now means he'll need to win in Houston to make the Masters. Needing a solo third to get inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Els stumbled down Bay Hill's closing stretch, finishing T-4 to cap another gut-wrenching week. After two weeks of mentally-taxing, near-misses, you have to wonder what he has left in the tank.

      Read More »from Five things we learned from the Arnold Palmer Invitational
    • Tiger Woods, winning? That can't be right. Oh, but it is. (Getty Images)

      Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter and Facebook.

      Tiger Woods won a tournament. That story seems familiar, somehow, but I just can't place it.

      At long last, after the hydrant, the "transgressions," the Perkins waitress, the divorce, the injury and the endless streams of jokes, Woods has finally won again. It's been 924 days since Woods won a tournament, 924 days during which, at some point, everyone who's ever followed Woods must have wondered if he'd ever win again.

      But he did on Sunday in comfortable confines, at Bay Hill and the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a tournament he's now won seven times. He did so facing down one of his more persistent challengers in Graeme McDowell; it was McDowell who denied Woods a victory in 2010 by catching and passing him at the Chevron Classic.

      [ Adelson: If 'Old' Tiger is back, the rest of the tour should be worried ]

      On this day, though, nobody was catching Woods. He started the day at 11-under and posted a 2-under 70; only two players, Brian Harman and

      Read More »from Tiger Woods returns to winning ways at long last with victory at Bay Hill
    • Bubba Watson can do some pretty spectacular things with a golf club, but I'm pretty sure he couldn't pull this shot off again if you gave him 50 balls from the same spot. Struggling for most of his third round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Watson hit his approach shot on the 18th and instantly assumed the ball was headed for the lake.

      Only the ball had other plans, bouncing off the rocks and going straight up into the air before landing on the green about 30 feet from the hole. In typical Bubba fashion, he rolled in the putt for birdie to cap off one of the wildest 3's we've seen all year.

      Watson's currently at 5-under for the week, six shots back of final-round leader Tiger Woods.

    • Tiger Woods / Getty ImagesFor about 13 holes on Saturday, it appeared Tiger Woods was on the verge of doing something we haven't seen him do in a long time, after he rolled in a birdie putt that stretched his lead to four shots.

      Forget him just winning his first official tournament in more than two years, he was on the verge of steamrolling the field, something he used to do with regularity at one point in his career.

      He was back ... or at least it felt that way for a fleeting moment. Woods went on to go bogey-double over the next two holes -- including knocking his tee shot OB on the 15th -- and just like that, the lead was gone.

      But Woods didn't hit the panic button this time around. Instead of letting things unravel from there, he dug in and managed to go 1-under over his final three holes to grab a one-shot lead over Graeme McDowell going into Sunday's final round (his first since the 2009 BMW Championship).

      Woods now finds himself in a position he used to thrive in, holding the lead on Sunday at course he's dominated in the past. But the funny thing is we don't know who's going to show up in the final round.

      It could be the guy who was nearly unbeatable for his entire career, winning 37 of the 39 times he held the lead going into the final round. Or it could be the guy who shot 75 on Sunday at Pebble and lost to unheralded Robert Rock in Abu Dhabi. Despite the fact that one of the greatest closers in the history of the sport has a lead, we just can't trust him to close things out -- at least not yet.

      But that all could change on Sunday at Bay Hill. All he has to do is win.

      Read More »from Tiger Woods takes one-shot lead into the final round at Bay Hill

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