Basketball may be President-elect Barack Obama’s first love but he began a 12-day holiday in Hawaii with five hours on a golf course.

Mr Obama’s score in his 18-hole game on a par 72 course in Waimanalo was not revealed. He played with a group of local friends from his schooldays and Eugene Kang, an aide who has played the game since he was 10.

Although he teed off in Hawaii with a strong drive, assessments of the standard of his game are mixed. Golf Digest reported in March that his handicap was a very respectable 16 - just behind President George W. Bush, who plays off 15.

But his spokesman Robert Gibbs said in June that Mr Obama and others “went to a golf course, and they swung golf clubs but I don’t think it was real pretty”.

Mr Obama, who plays left-handed, stopped at the 9th hole to but some hot dogs and other snacks for the group. When asked how the game was going, he smiled and replied: “I’m not that good.”

Brady Riggs, a PGA instructor, wrote in Golf Magazine in August that Mr Obama, who will be the 44th president and the fifth successive one to play golf, “has the swing of an athletic guy who plays just a few times a year” and has “lots of potential” to improve.

“His backswing move is very compact and cautious. Obama’s backswing is the opposite of wild: it’s controlled and focused on avoiding mistakes … The funny thing is that even though he aims down the middle, his shots fly to the left.”

A politician’s golf game has long been seen as an indicator of what kind of approach he takes to public service. President Bill Clinton, who said that his handicap was “12, 13 - something like that” - was known for taking “mulligans”, retaken swings following a mistake.

The naming of Corey Pavin as the next Ryder Cup captain of the US team is bizarre, especially as the victorious Paul Azinger wanted to carry on and had the support of the players

It’s hard to make Corey Pavin look like a superhero. Did the PGA of America really think that surrounding Pavin with four babes from Santa’s Christmas Grotto would suddenly turn the 5ft 9in jock into Captain America? With Paul Azinger it might have worked – but Pavin just looked like Charlie Chaplin seeking refuge in a big department store.

Even the four girls from the ‘world famous’ Radio City Rockettes looked slightly embarrassed and they’re professionals at this sort of cheese. Pavin isn’t even ‘world famous’ in Oxnard, California. It’s been 13 long years since he won the 1995 Open at Shinnecock Hills and for most of America’s current youth squad, Pavin is not even a faded memory.

Pavin’s appointment as the new US Ryder Cup captain wasn’t a shock in terms of news. But it’s still a shocking appointment. The players wanted Azinger to return, Azinger wanted Azinger to return and so the PGA came up with… Pavin. It was a decision worthy of the 57 old farts of the RFU lampooned by Will Carling.

The PGA limply explained their decision by saying that they didn’t want to start a trend of repeat captains (Ben Hogan was the last man to serve consecutive terms in 1949). It might create “a ripple”. Well good, wrote American columnist Steve Elling, let’s turn the ripple into a tidal wave with “crazy captain Ahab Azinger holding the harpoon and aiming at Wales”. Bad idea, said the PGA. With Azinger we might actually be in danger of winning this thing in consecutive matches for the first time since 1993. So instead they played the game of Buggin’s Turn and came up with the name of Pavin, whose only experience of leadership was as an assistant captain to Tom Lehman in 2006 when America suffered a record defeat.

Is it possible that the PGA saw a Jesus syndrome in Pavin, a man who is a convert from Judaism to Christianity? Or did they see a new Zen-like calm in a man who has mellowed out since his second marriage to Lisa Nguyen. She said: “When I met Corey I could tell he was empty inside.” And now presumably he is full, perhaps even to the point of overflowing with the milk of human kindness.

Or maybe the PGA just liked Pavin sucking up to them. Did he really say: “The Ryder Cup is in my blood. I think if you cut my arm open, Ryder Cup would just bleed out. It’s the greatest event in the world, I think, and certainly the golf world.”

The duffers at the PGA may be fooled by that sort of soap, but will it wash with the players? Can Pavin take the players with him? He can say that he played on the winning teams in ‘91 and ‘93. Just like Azinger.

Pavin can show the young guns the major win that they all aspire to. Just like Azinger. Pavin can point to the holed chip in the weekend evening gloaming to win a crucial Ryder Cup match. Just like Azinger.

Pavin has the T-shirt. His four-wood to the final hole in ‘95 is one of the most famous shots in US Open history. At the age of 49 Pavin preposterously topped this year’s US Tour putting stats. But in the end all those achievements will mean nothing without the love of the players.

Azinger had the players. Nick Faldo won six majors but without the love of his players he was more like Sid James in Carry On Up The Fairway. Like all those before him Pavin will find out that being Ryder Cup captain is a choice of crown or clown. But without the players you can end up looking like Charlie Chaplin.

Last week Michelle Wie qualified to play on the LPGA Tour next season and you wondered if it would all end in another high-speed crash.

You wondered if Michelle Wie has all the talent in the world and a great big choker round her neck. You wondered if the fans turn up like swarming bees because they love her failed genius. You wondered if Michelle Wie is Jimmy White in high heels. Very high heels.

‘The Whirlwind’ used to be able to turn up at your local snooker hall and knock in a 147 without removing his overcoat. But when the TV arc lights were switched on high, Jimmy’s brain turned to melted cheese. There’s not much doubt that ‘the Big Wiesy’ could turn up at your local club and go round in 66 in a cocktail dress. But Michelle also has a short history of crash-and-burn under the heat of the spotlight.

Maybe that’s what attracts the fans. Maybe that’s why the cars were bumper to bumper for the LPGA final qualifying tournament at Daytona Beach last weekend. Maybe that’s why the spectators were three deep along some of the fairways. As Wie’s coach, David Leadbetter, said: “Does the LPGA need Michelle? Look around.” The LPGA is desperate for Wie’s pulling power, just as the heyday of snooker reaped the Whirlwind. Women’s golf has been blown apart by the current financial crisis. Sponsors have pulled the manhole covers over their heads and Annika Sorenstam has waddled off into retirement. They need a star.

Like her or not, Wie is that star. A lot of the other women on tour will give Wie the arctic shoulder next year, resentful of her financial success. They hate that Wie shares an agent with Sharon Stone and Queen Latifah. They are too blinded by envy to recognise that without the pulling power of Wie, they would soon be back home working in daddy’s dry-cleaning shop.

When you watch Wie, you are watching Jimmy White. You are watching an athlete who can hit shots that no one else in their profession can come close to attempting. The old LPGA advert did a great riff showing a succession of the tour’s leading players saying: “I hit it like a girl” before delivering the punchline: “Can you?” But Wie hits it like a man.

We turn up to watch Wie hit a golf ball because it is jaw-dropping. Most women golfers use fairway woods and hybrid clubs because they are more forgiving. Wie hits long irons. Sometimes her ball seems to leave a contrail behind. The bloke who stood behind the final green last Sunday with a cardboard sign saying: “Yes Wie Can”, had it all wrong. No we can’t.

And yet Wie’s cocktail of genius comes served in a very frail glass. She shatters easily, just like Jimmy. It was all there to see again last weekend. Wie had begun like a champion with rounds of 69 and 65. Even going into the final day she was just a shot behind the leader Stacey Lewis. Then the tray hit the floor and Wie crashed.

She missed the first three greens in her final round. She chunked a pitch on the ninth. Even Leadbetter said: “I’m sure the demons were floating around in there… I think if she had failed this, it would have been like, ‘Michelle Who?’ ” It will never be Michelle Who, because it is her capacity to fail that makes her so fascinating. John Daly is still pulling them in even when he smashed some guy’s camera against a tree last Thursday. Wie isn’t whacko like Big John, but she walks that same alluring tightrope between catastrophe and stardom.

In her first event as a professional Wie was disqualified for a dodgy drop, an incident that was brilliantly depicted as “accidentally cheating”. In 2007 she failed to break 70 in 14 consecutive tournaments as she ridiculously tried to play through an injury. Wie’s incredible coil creates unprecedented power, but she was then trying to unleash this power through a damaged wrist. It was like trying to drive a Formula One car on normal road tyres. The same result. Crash.

Things got so bad that Wie was accused of faking injury towards the end of a round in order to avoid shooting 88, a score that would have seen her excluded from the rest of the LPGA season. Could things get any worse? Of course they could. Towards the end of last season Wie finally looked like earning a decent cheque until she was disqualified for forgetting to sign her scorecard. Crash.

Last weekend Leadbetter said: “A year ago she couldn’t have cared less if she ever played again. But she’s not the long, skinny, teenage phenom anymore. She’s smarter, stronger and she’s grown up.” Has she? Has she really? Part of White’s charm was that he was a pasty-faced Peter Pan with a snooker cue. He seemed eternally young. Has Michelle Wie grown up or does she still swerve between pout and giggle, between genius and crash. A lot of people will pay good money to find out.

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Corey Pavin will lead the American Ryder Cup as captain for their defence of the trophy at Celtic Manor in 2010.

The 49-year-old from California follows Paul Azinger, who earlier in the week announced that he would be making way for a new captain.

Azinger was last involved in the match as one of Tom Lehman’s assistants in the crushing defeat in Ireland four years ago and there had been speculation that he might stay on after leading the United States to their first victory since 1999.

The last time America re-appointed a captain was Ben Hogan in 1949 so Pavin was a clear favourite.

Winner of the US Open in 1995, he made the last of his three cup appearances as a player later that year.

Although the US lost the match, he won four of his five games to finish his career with eight wins and five defeats.

Pavin’s debut had been at Kiawah Island four years earlier and he was involved in controversy there, joining partner Steve Pate in wearing a “Desert Storm” cap during a match that became so heated it was known as “The War on the Shore.”

Azinger’s team achieved victory at Valhalla even though they were without the injured Tiger Woods.

The world number one should be back for the first match to be held on Welsh soil, but since he has been on the winning side only once in five matches that does not necessarily make Pavin’s task any easier.

Europe have not been beaten at home since 1993 and only once since 1981.

Corey Pavin factfile

1959: Born in Oxnard, California on November 16
1982: Turns professional.
1984: Picks up first PGA Tour victory at Houston Coca-Cola Open.
1991: Tops PGA’S money list – the last man to do so without winning at least 1million in prize money.
Plays in first Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, South California. Picked up a point in the singles as USA went on to win the ‘War on the Shore’.
1993: Part of American team which retained the Ryder Cup at The Belfry, picking up three points.
1995: Wins US Open by two strokes over Greg Norman for the only major victory of his career.
Tastes only career defeat in Ryder Cup, despite winning four out of five matches at Oak Hill. Ends his Ryder Cup career with eight wins and five defeats.
2004: Runner-up to Nick Price in USPGA Championship at Southern Hills.
2006: Wins 15th PGA Tour title at US Bank Championship in Milwaukee. Also breaks the record for the fewest number of strokes needed to complete nine holes at a PGA Tour event (26).
2008: Named as America’s Ryder Cup captain for their defence of the trophy at Celtic Manor in Wales in 2010.

Padraig Harrington has revealed the strained nature of his relationship with Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia, describing the Spaniard as “the antithesis of me”.

The pair have been Europe’s most prominent golfers over the past few years, with Garcia currently ranked second in the world and Harrington fourth.

They have also been direct competitors on the biggest stage, with Harrington pipping his rival at the Open last year, when both were bidding for their first major, and the US PGA this summer.

In an interview with The Guardian : “We have zero in common, bar the fact that we both play golf. He is the antithesis of me, and I am the antithesis of him.

“We play the game in exactly the opposite way. He is destined to find the long game easy and the short game hard, and I am the opposite.

“We’re also competitors who for the last few years have been vying over who is the number one golfer in Europe.

“I think in the hearts and minds of a lot of people Garcia would have been number one, while I have been ranked number one. As you can imagine, no quarter is given.

“It is not as if we have ever had a row or a run-in. I have had plenty of run-ins with people and we would be friends but (with Garcia) it is just, well, we are so much the opposite of each other.”

Harrington is biddding for a third successive major victory at the Masters early next year, and he is hoping Tiger Woods’ return following knee surgery will take the pressure off somewhat.

“It will be the hardest event to win in my whole life simply because of the expectations that will be there,” he added.

“Thankfully, Tiger is coming back and he will be the big focus of the week. But still there will be a huge amount of pressure on me.”

Joey Lamielle rolled his RIFE Aussie to a round of 65 (-7) and sits atop the leaderboard after day one at PGA Tour Qualifying School.  Earlier this year Joey became the first player in history to carry a RIFE Staff Bag in the United States Open and this week he is also wearing RIFE shirts compliments of Verterra Sports.  RIFE has 11 putters in play at PGA Tour Q-School, more than TaylorMade, Yes, Mizuno, and MacGregor, trailing only Titleist, Odyssey, and Ping.  Joey Lamielle, Josh Teater (Hybrid Mallet,) Brian Duncan (Aussie,) and David Robinson (Aussie) are all products of the highly successful Mini Tour Program at RIFE Putters.

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South Africa’s Trevor Immelman makes his first appearance in his home country since winning the US Masters when he defends his title in the Nedbank Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City.

Immelman, 28, won the 2007 event by a stroke from Justin Rose after receiving a late invitation. Less than two weeks later he had to withdraw from the South African Open because of a benign lung tumour which required surgery.

Four months later he held off Tiger Woods and the rest of the world’s top golfers at the Masters, holding or sharing the lead through all four rounds in brutally tough conditions.

He has won since, and recently admitted that he found it difficult to lift his game to the same level in the months that followed.

“There were many different things that I had to find time to deal with and learn how to handle them,” he told the South African edition of Golf Digest. “Probably for the first time in my life – and my career – I let golf slip down my priority list.”

The tournament marks Luke Donald’s return following surgery on his left wrist in August, but the is Spain’s Sergio Garcia, the 2001 and 2003 winner, whose recent good form has lifted him to No 2 in the world rankings.

Other strong contenders will include Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson, who combined to win the World Cup for Sweden in China on Sunday. Stenson has finished second and fourth in two previous appearances at Sun City but world No 6 Karlsson will be playing in the tournament for the first time.

The 12 invited players are guaranteed a minimum of $200,000 in prize money but this year’s field lacks some of the glamour of previous years, although eight of the world’s top 20 will be teeing up.

South African crowd favourite Ernie Els is missing after 16 consecutive appearances during which he won three times and finished in the top three on 10 occasions. Els opted out for family reasons.

Meanwhile, Severiano Ballesteros has left intensive care after his fourth brain operation, the Madrid hospital at which he is being treated have confirmed.

The five-time major winner underwent further surgery yesterday for the placement of a cephalorachidian fluid VP shunt.

At the same time, the surgical team treating the 51-year-old performed a cranioplasty to repair a bone defect.

Ballesteros was diagnosed with a brain tumour after losing consciousness at Madrid Airport in October. He underwent a lengthy operation on Oct 24 to reduce pressure on his brain and remove remaining tumour tissues following two previous operations.

On Nov 18, he had recovered sufficiently to leave intensive care, although a hospital statement did warn there was a long way to go.

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Five-time major winner Severiano Ballesteros has left intensive care after his fourth operation, the Madrid hospital at which he is being treated have confirmed.

The five-time major winner underwent further surgery yesterday for the placement of a cephalorachidian fluid VP shunt.

At the same time, the surgical team treating the 51-year-old performed a cranioplasty to repair a bone defect.

He remained in intensive care overnight being moved back onto the ward today.

Ballesteros was diagnosed with a brain tumour after losing consciousness at Madrid Airport in October.

He underwent a lengthy operation on Oct 24 to reduce pressure on his brain and remove remaining tumour tissues following two previous operations.

On Nov 18 he had recovered sufficiently to leave intensive care, although a hospital statement did warn there was a long way to go.

Ballesteros first blazed into our consciousness in the long, hot summer of ‘76 when he all but won the Open Championship as a 19-year-old. Everyone told Seve he would need patience to win the Open, but Seve replied: “When I am older there will be time to be careful.”

At the same time Ballesteros, a winner of five majors and 87 titles, announced his retirement. He said that he wanted to tell the British people face to face. “There was always a good feeling, always a good chemistry between us,” he said. “Most of my wins were down to them.”