Life is good when you're Arnold Palmer. (Getty Images)Kids these days. No respect, I tell ya.

On Wednesday, Arnold Palmer spoke to the press in advance of his tournament at Bay Hill, and talk covered everything from Q School to Tiger Woods. When asked about the absence of Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald, the top two players in the world, however, The King minced no words:

"I'm disappointed that they are not here, no question about it," Palmer said. "They are the top players on the Tour right now in the positions that they are in, and I am disappointed.
I had a letter from Rory seeking my consultation and told me he wasn't coming.  And of course that made me feel great.  And if you believe that, I'll talk to you outside afterwards," he laughed. (Rory's got some brass ones, asking for advice but not showing up to the big dog's tournament, yes?)

Palmer drew a direct connection to his days as a young golfer, when he traveled across the pond to the British Open to expand the world's interest in golf. Pay it back, he suggested. And when Arnie

The Promised Land. (Getty Images)How much is a trip to Augusta worth to players? Enough that two known names, Matteo Manassero and Robert Rock, are throwing Hail Mary passes in Morocco in an attempt to get into the field.

Rock and Manassero are playing in Morocco in the Hassan II Golf Trophy tournament at the King of Morocco's exclusive Royal Course in Agadir. If one of them manages to win, he'll amass enough points to get inside the top 50 and thus go from Agadir to Augusta.

Rock currently sits at 57th in the world rankings, and Manassero at 61st. A win would be enough to close the deal, and both players know it.

"Augusta and qualifying for the Masters is the reason why I played in Spain last week and I'm here this week in Morocco," Rock said, according to an AP report. "The only way I can now really get into the Masters is to win this week, and given how well I played in the Andalucia Open I'm quietly confident of doing enough to get myself inside the top 50."

If they can't close the deal this weekend, and this is

Luke Donald is number one again. (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.

T1. Rory McIlroy. All of a sudden, Rory's got competition for the top spot. You know how to settle this, right? Pool cues and trash can lids. (Two first-place votes.) Last week: 1.

T1. Luke Donald. Luke needs a little something to fire him up. You know, like Luke Skywalker. Maybe the revelation that his father is a megalomaniac dictator would do it. 'Cause the guy's way too sweet now. Last week: T3.

3. Justin Rose. He followed up his WGC win with a T29 at the Transitions. Still, he's knocking on the door of greatness. Not very loud yet, but still. Last week: 2.

4. Lee Westwood. Three

Q School changes afoot.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, Mr. Wall is absolutely on fire about the PGA Tour's new Q School plan.

Wall: This appears to be it, sir: After years of living with the same old seasonal schedule and player-development process, the PGA Tour appears to be on the verge of scrapping the entire system starting next year. I could go on a rant about this, but I won't ... at least not yet.

For now, let's get into some of the details, including the decision to scrap Q-School, move the start of the season fall and go to a wraparound season, and make the Nationwide Tour the new pipeline for aspiring tour pros, thereby forcing up-and-coming college kids and European players to forget about their dream of obtaining a card the old-fashioned way. In my opinion, this is the equivalent to college football bypassing a play-in game and going to a 64-team playoff. I don't know about you, but I think this idea is bound to fail.

This is pretty good: golf funnyman David Feherty ribbing pretty much everybody who teed off at the Tavistock Cup. Some guys took it well, others not so much. We need a few more one-liners like this during the regular tour. Make it happen, tourney officials!

Oh, Ernie Els. So much hope, so much promise on Sunday afternoon at the Transitions, and it all came undone so quickly. This is the painful putt that led to that oh-so-awkward NBC/Golf Channel interview afterward. I gotta say, if I yipped it like this, I'd have wrapped the putter around someone's neck. Maybe that's why I'm not a pro golfer. No sense of proportion. Or touch.

The Tavistock Cup is the greatest member scramble in golf, a collection of most of the world's greatest golfers repping their various elite enclaves for a bit of good old-fashioned fun and golf. Tiger Woods, Ian Poulter, Ernie Els, Bubba Watson and more teed it up on Day 1. Get all the details here, including Round 1 leaders Bo Van Pelt and Sean O'Hair.

Tiger Woods / Getty ImagesJust days before Tiger Woods stepped foot on Lake Nona's grounds for the Tavistock Cup, the 14-time major winner made it a point to let the world know, via his website (of course), that his questionable Achilles was just fine.

After testing it out during a Friday practice session, Woods declared himself good to go for not just a final tuneup before the first major of the year, but two rounds of exhibition golf at the Tavistock Cup.

That was a total of six competitive rounds of golf in seven days ... coming back from a strained Achilles.

It sounded crazy, Woods playing so much golf right before the Master, after he left Doral with a limp. But the goal all along was to get in the best possible position before heading Augusta, and that apparently meant getting in as many reps as possible.

The questions about the Achilles will no doubt continue throughout the entire week, but Woods certainly left Day 1 of the Tavistock with a lot of positives, including a 6-under 66 on his own ball (Woods and Albany teammate Justin Rose fired a best-ball 9-under 63).

Now, there's no point in over-analyzing Woods' round; it was an exhibition match and considering the only thing on the line is bragging rights, you'd expect all 24 guys in the field to go after every pin position on the course. Even still, watching him in the first round, you couldn't help but notice that the limp was gone and the irons were incredibly crisp.

Woods tested the Achilles out on a number of occasions, including on the 578-yard 15th hole, where he opted to follow Bubba Watson's drive off the tee, ripping a draw over the trees to within a couple yards of Watson's tee shot. If the Achilles was still an issue, Woods would have certainly taken a less aggressive line off the tee.

It was just one of a couple of shots that made you believe Woods really was telling the truth when he said it was just a strain.

So what do a couple good drives and a solid round tell us about Woods' health going forward? Not a whole lot. But at the very least, the fact that he's not limping and seems to be going after the ball has to mean something in the short-term.