World No 1 says his Masters performance 'just isn't good enough' – although he is still angry about almost being disqualified in the first round

52-year-old former champion and the Ulsterman 30 years his junior head pack but toiling Woods suffers torrid day

We should enjoy the beauty of the course and the quality of the action that is expected

Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood fill the top three spots on the world rankings going into The Masters - and any one of them could be number one at the end of the week.

Ian Poulter has pulled out of this week's Honda Classic PGA Tour event after contracting pneumonia.

The world No 1 Luke Donald will play Ernie Els in the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Tucson tomorrow. Rory McIlroy, the world No 2, will take on South Africa's George Coetzee.

Northern Ireland's US Open champion Rory McIlroy justified his position as favourite to win the Dubai Desert Classic by adding a 65 to his first-round 66 to reach 13 under par yesterday. But the 40-year-old Dane Thomas Bjorn has matched him shot for shot and Martin Kaymer had the first hole-in-one of his life, on the seventh (his 16th) as he reached 11 under with a 67. Lee Westwood's 65 for 10 under included birdies on the last three holes.

Rory McIlroy kicked off a month which could see him reach the world No 1 ranking by charging into contention on the first day of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

It will not just be the top four players in the world Tiger Woods will be trying to conquer on his seasonal bow in Abu Dhabi this week, but also his "broken concentration". That is the view of Sir Nick Faldo, who does not necessarily agree that the 14-time major champion turned a corner with his first win in more than two years.

When one thinks of Darren Clarke the physique of a Courtney Lawes does not spring to mind. But as he sets out on a new campaign, the 43-year-old has employed the England rugby team's sports scientist and is obeying a similar monastic lifestyle to the lock and his Red Rose colleagues.

It's the week before Christmas and the rest of golf have put their sticks away for the year.

First he will try to take care of the world's best, Luke Donald, then he will face up to the resurrected might of the world's greatest, Tiger Woods. Rory McIlroy may be suffering the after-effects of a virus, but he is even more gripped by the fever running through golf.

With the highest respect to the extremely creditable mice who have been growing more sturdily competitive and so much wealthier over the last two years, we have to note this morning that the cat, or rather the Tiger, is back.

A nightmare might be over. What had become so impossible, so blocked, might just be free again