Lee Westwood must wait three more weeks until he is confirmed as Britain's first world No 1 in 16 years. Yet if Martin Kaymer's incredible run of form continues then it could become one of the shortest reigns on record.

Colin Montgomerie has handed Lee Westwood what he calls "the honour" of leading off the home challenge for the Ryder Cup this morning and the Englishman will do so confident that the errors of two years ago have been fixed.

Sir Nick Faldo may be the much-maligned former Europe captain, but that has not stopped him from criticising the first moves of his successor. Colin Montgomerie, he says, has acted too rashly in telling his players the partnerships for Friday morning's opening fourballs.

According to reports last night, Darren Clarke is to be announced today as one of Colin Montgomerie's vice-captain's for the Europe team which contests the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in October.

Phil Mickelson says he expects to "be in contention" at St Andrews this week after finally getting the hang of links golf.

For Radio 2 listeners of a certain vintage, Sunday lunchtimes will always belong to Michael Parkinson. Twinkly anecdotage and a trot through the papers, plus user-friendly jazz and swing: what better soundtrack when you're cooking the Sunday roast? But since Parkinson packed up his Diana Krall records a few years back, we've had Michael Cheese-Ball and his showtunes foisted on us, which just isn't the same.

Just when England believed it would be heading into next week's Masters with an unprecedented number of representatives in the world's top 10, so a Paul Casey injury cast doubt over the optimism. A shoulder complaint has already done for the defence of his Houston Open title and he left here yesterday fearing for his Augusta chances, too.

Ian Poulter begins his campaign to win back-to-back World Golf Championship events today spurred on by the well-wishes of some of the game's biggest names. Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and even Colin Montgomerie contacted Poulter after he became the first Englishman to win a WGC event at the Accenture Match Play in Tucson last month.

Nick Faldo today said Tiger Woods' emotional statement still left a big question to be answered - when will the world number one return to golf?

If you don't particularly like golf, there are few players you would be prepared to watch a TV programme about. Perhaps only one: Severiano Ballesteros. OK, so he had some dodgy pairs of flares in his time but it was his flair on the course that transcended his staid pastime; he had a sunny disposition mixed with Mediterranean emotion; and, for those who only really get interested in the game when the Ryder Cup is on, "he was without a doubt the reason why Europe started winning", according to Jack Nicklaus on Inside Sport Special (BBC1, Wednesday). If you were to watch a programme about Nick Faldo or Bernhard Langer, you would be likely to reflect upon a good three-quarters of an hour spoiled.

Lough Erne, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, is the latest addition to our impressive stock of luxury golf resorts and celebrated its recent opening with a challenge match between Padraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy which young Rory won two up.

Tom Watson bounced back from his Open heartache with an opening-round 67 at the Senior Open Championship here yesterday. The 59-year-old American, who came agonisingly close to becoming the oldest major winner in history before missing out to Stewart Cink in a play-off, insisted it was not difficult to put that disappointment behind him after his three-under-par round.