Rory McIlroy is not only playing for Ireland in China this week, but possibly for the future of the World Cup as well. Certainly, a high-profile win for the young golfing prince would give the 58-year-old competition a better chance of survival.

Like the bloat fish says at the end of Finding Nemo: "Now what?" Rory McIlroy rolled into Royal St George's riding the wave of hype and expectation that he surfed so effortlessly to win the US Open in Maryland last month. He got blown out to sea in Kent. McIlroy was unlucky with the draw and got as battered as the fish on sale in town. Hours before the end, he knew he'd had his chips, too. He trudged off the links looking like he was suffering a nasty case of indigestion from a soggy Sandwich. He shot a final-round 73 to finish bedraggled, befuddled and delighted to be in out of the rain at seven over par.

When Seve Ballesteros dinked a tricky shot along the ground between the bunkers during The Open at Royal Birkdale in 1976, "golf had a new entertainer". So said Gary Lineker in Seve: The Legend (BBC1, Sunday), adding that the Spaniard combined "sport and showbusiness". So Seve was the new rock 'n' roll of golf – or at least the new chip 'n' run – and his premature death in May adds to the impression. The sport whose only claim to craziness was lurid trouserwear could boast flair of a different kind.

A stranger to the game of golf would have been hard-pushed to recognise Luke Donald as the world no 1 yesterday, partly because there was very little accompanying razzmatazz – spectators were manifestly more interested in the group just ahead, which included a young Ulsterman called McIlroy – but partly also because Donald's short game, usually as reliable as a metronome, clicked only sporadically.

From a boy to a man. Eight-year-old Rory McIlroy used to chip golf balls with a plastic club into the washing machine at his Holywood home in Northern Ireland. The 22-year-old spent the last four days tossing the world's greatest players into a spin cycle and hanging them out to dry. It has been a glimpse of what to expect for the next decade.

It was an emotional day here at the famous Surrey course yesterday as some of the game's biggest names gathered to play in a pro-am to raise funds for the Seve Ballesteros Foundation and Cancer Research UK.

It was by far the best drive I've hit off the first tee in a competition this year; high, straight and long. When my two playing partners stepped up, neither could match it and I was feeling buoyed up for a good round.

There is no such thing as an uncontroversial bidding process. That much became clear in the aftermath of the European Tour's decision to award France the 2018 Ryder Cup, with the Madrid team accusing their rivals of dragging the death of Seve Ballesteros into the campaign.

France have been selected as hosts of the 2018 Ryder Cup, it was announced today.

Hundreds of mourners applauded as Seve Ballesteros's ashes were carried into his local church by his three children for the funeral service in honour of the five-times major winner yesterday.

An escort of youngsters dressed in navy blue and each carrying a three-iron provided one of many touching moments at the funeral of Seve Ballesteros today.

Even when the great man's career was in decline, he made time to help Brian Viner improve his short game, as well as talking Woods, wedges, putters and personalities

While a campaign was launched yesterday to immortalise Seve Ballesteros as the image of the European Tour, the great Spanish golfer continued to be honoured across the world. The American Tour held a minute's silence at all three of their competing events and, defying convention, the Spanish flag was raised at Sawgrass, venue for this week's Players Championship.