According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Bureau, foreign citizens who come to the United States to participate in professional sports (and the entertainment industry) will no longer be limited to a ten-year career. In a memo issued last week, the bureau stated that such foreigners would be able to renew their visa as long as they left the country after ten years and applied for a new visa.

This is especially welcome news to golf fans. The ranks of the LPGA and PGA are increasingly peopled by foreign nationals and golf is one sport where ten years is a rather short career.

The move can only be good for competition in golf and other sports, such as baseball and basketball, that feature prominent foreign players.

Tiger Woods continues his comeback after knee surgery next week at the WGC-CA Championship at Miami’s Doral Country Club. Doral is a favorite course of Tiger’s; he’s never finished outside of the top ten at the course.

The WGC-CA tournament begins on Thursday. It will be Woods’ first 72-hole competition since he won the US Open last June at San Diego’s Torrey Pines. Woods debuted following surgery at the WGC-Accenture Match Play competition last week. He was eliminated in the second round.

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Seve Ballesteros, three-time Masters British Open champion and two-time Masters champion, is staying strong through his second round of chemotherapy to treat a brain tumor. The 51-year-old Spaniard underwent three surgeries in the fall after fainting at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport on October 6. He is scheduled to begin a third regiment of chemotherapy next week.

Said Ballesteros to the Associated Press, “The results of the checkup were really positive. Better even than the first ones. I will start my third chemotherapy round shortly and hope it will be in the same line as the previous ones.”

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Lorena Ochoa, the top-ranked woman golfer is the world, racked up her 25th LPGA career victory this past weekend as she won the Honda LPGA tournament in Thailand. Ochoa trailed third-place finisher Paula Creamer by three strokes going into the final round, but her six-under round of 66 was more than enough to secure her the trophy. Hee Young Park of South Korea finished second.

Said Ochoa to the Associated Press, “It has been a great week. My goal was to win the tournament. Here I am with the trophy and I am very pleased. I played especially well.”

The field at the Honda LPGA Thailand was the strongest group of women golfers ever assembled in Asia. The tour continues to Singapore this week for the HSBC Women’s Champions Tournament. Ochoa is the defending champion in that event.

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Nike–one of Tiger’s sponsors–pokes fun at the stars of last season and their reaction to the champ’s return. It’s worth a look:

Phil Mickelson went into the final round of the Northern Trust Open with a five stroke lead, but that narrowed to just one stroke over Steve Stricker by the 18th hole. Just as Stricker was steeling himself for a playoff, however, Mickelson sunk a tough putt for par on the 18th green. Fred Couples, playing in his last PGA season, Andres Romero, and K J Choi tied for third place.

This is Mickelson’s 35th career victory and first time in the top 20 in the last three tournaments.

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Tiger Woods, the best–and most followed–golfer in the world, is returning to competition after a more than eight month hiatus following arthroscopic knee surgery last summer. Woods will make his season debut at the Accenture Match Play competition in Marana, Arizona this week. He is the defending champion in the 64-player, single-elimination, match play event.

Will his game be up to his high standards? Says Woods, “It’s one thing to (play) in a practice environment against some buddies for a little bit of cash. It’s a different deal in a PGA Tour event against the best players in the world. I’m looking forward to the challenge and experiencing that excitement again.”

We’re looking forward to it too.

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LPGA sweetheart, Natalie Gulbis is slated to compete on the latest season of Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” according to NBC. The 26-year-old golfer is one of 16 contestants on the second season of the reality show, which begins on Sunday, March 1. Others vying for the title of “Celebrity Apprentice” and money for their favorite charity include country singer, Clint Black; Heisman Trophy winner, Herschel Walker; comedienne Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa; and skating champion and commentator, Scott Hamilton.

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Since retiring in 2005, golf legend, Jack Nicklaus has mostly remained out of the spotlight, choosing to play only father-son tournaments. However, spectators and fellow competitors at the Delray Dune-Bethesda Hospital Pro-Am tournament in South Florida got a treat on Monday as Nicklaus joined their ranks for a good cause.

He wasn’t the only legend there. Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, and Gary Player were among those in attendance, but the 69-year-old Nicklaus, who won 18 major titles during his PGA career, drew a eight-person-deep crowd as he practiced at the driving range. Said Nicklaus,

“I don’t know what they’re going to see; they’re just going to see an old man walk around a golf course and shoot 75, or more.”

The man is too modest; I’d have liked to have been among that crowd.

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High winds forced the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Open to be postponed until Monday. The winds, which gusted to up to 45 mph, were powerful enough to topple a 40-foot pine tree that crossed the third fairway. Originally, the tee start times were delayed for six hours. Later, when the winds refused to subside, play was postponed for the day.

Dustin Johnson is leading Anthony Kim by four strokes going into the final round. Kim is the only player under 25 to have multiple PGA Tour wins.