DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: Until recently, Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team from Paris last year appeared to be suffering from the same symptoms of euphoria

Sky Sports will be the only place to watch live coverage of the Masters next year after a new deal blocked the BBC out. The new deal ends a recent agreement whereby the BBC showed two rounds.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN DUBAI: Befitting a man who has won more world ranking points than any other this season, Rory McIlroy has no regrets that he's not in position to claim the Race to Dubai.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN DUBAI: Two years ago, the Englishman put in a jittery performance when he was the frontrunner and was almost caught by Justin Rose

DEREK LAWRENSON IN DUBAI: The first day at the season finale DP World Tour Championship was about as far removed from a humdrum opening round as it would be possible to find.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN DUBAI: Colourful journeyman Mike Lorenzo-Vera from France leads the DP World Tour Championship at halfway - but he knows what happens next.

After 47 tournaments and hundreds of thousands of shots, one fearless stroke on the 18th hole decided everything between Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood.

It is a decade since a spectacular fall from grace exploded into life with a sensational sequence of events, starting with a car crash in a quiet, gated community in Florida during Thanksgiving.

Players have been given permission to wear shorts on competition days for the first time after forecasts showed temperatures at Leopard Creek were set to hit forty degrees celsius.

Patrick Reed held the outright lead after the second round of the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas on Thursday while tournament host Tiger Woods is six back.

As another week on the sporting landscape races by, Sportsmail's Riath Al-Samarrai examines who has left themselves hot, and who has been left firmly out in the cold.

Patrick Reed still hasn't shaken off the stigma that followed his cheating storm at last month's Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. His latest heckle has come in Hawaii.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN ABU DHABI: What were you doing at the age of 15? Josh Hill, taking a break from his GCSE studies, warmed up for his European Tour debut by taking on Brooks Koepka.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN ABU DHABI: Twelve months ago, a struggling Shane Lowry turned up here and spoke about rebuilding his career in some of the far-flung spots on the European Tour.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN ABU DHABI: Matt Fitzpatrick is the 11-stone sapling punching well above his weight in a sport increasingly populated by the muscle-bound.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN ABU DHABI: It is still more than two months until the clocks go forward, and Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have yet to hit a shot.

McIlroy could hardly ask for a more alluring target in his first tournament for seven weeks. A win at the Farmers Insurance Open will take him back to world No 1 for the first time in more than four years.

In the confines of the players' lounge and in off the record conversations on the practice ground, a litany of torment came to characterize a brutal first day at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

It's Hot or Not time again as Sportsmail's Riath Al-Samarrai reveals what's been making him feel warm and what's been leaving him cold this week.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN DUBAI: Eddie Pepperell and Bryson DeChambeau engaged in a war of words after Pepperell criticised DeChambeau for his slow style of play by labelling him a 'single-minded twit'.

WORLD OF GOLF - DEREK LAWRENSON: You have to go all the way back to August last year to find the last time Woods, Koepka and McIlroy were all in the same place at the same time.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN LOS ANGELES: A couple of firecrackers from Rory McIlroy in his first round back as world number one, and an opening statement from Tiger Woods.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN LOS ANGELES: On a day when Tiger showed once more that no venue causes him fits quite like the wiles and mysteries of Riviera, McIlroy answered the riddles with a fine 67

EXCLUSIVE BY DEREK LAWRENSON: As ever with Fleetwood, the tone was measured and the words considered - but he made no secret of his displeasure at being in the middle of a media storm.

Tiger Woods' Masters preparation has suffered a setback as he is unable to return to action at next week's Players Championship in Florida due to a back issue, ESPN reported on Friday.

DEREK LAWRENSON IN ORLANDO: In only his second tournament back after three months out, the 28-year-old from Marlow has given himself the chance of a first victory on the PGA Tour.

DEREK LAWRENSON AT BAY HILL: It really doesn't get much better than winning in America for the first time at the home of the man every golfer knows as the King.

Rory McIlroy was still a teenager when he marked his first appearance at the Players Championship in 2009 by getting thrown out of bars along Jacksonville Beach for carrying a fake ID.

Now it is Reed’s turn to run the gauntlet, the arch-villain in so many golfing eyes following his actions in improving his lie while attempting a shot from the sand at the Hero Challenge in December. 

The PGA Tour will continue for the next four weeks without spectators, beginning at the Players Championship today, and begging the question: will the Masters follow suit next month?

DEREK LAWRENSON AT SAWGRASS: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka took their cue from a subdued audience reeling from the news that this was the last action they will witness.

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: No wonder there is a doom-laden feeling that the Ryder Cup should be postponed for 12 months and we write off a lost year for sport.

The legendary 49-year-old revealed on Twitter that talks with the 15-time major champion are underway over a high-profile shootout, despite virtually all sports being dragged to a halt.

Bjorn is taking some time away from the fairway during coronavirus lockdown and he decided to help others looking to improve their skills by filming a video on how to hit a chip shot.

EXCLUSIVE BY DEREK LAWRENSON: As he goes on his six-mile lockdown walks, wearing a 50lb fitness coat, the straight-talking Irishman has a weight on his shoulders and a lo on his mind.

I was all set to move to Loch Long, where The Nest is filmed, but unless I could live in Cape Cove, home to Dan (Martin Compston) and Emily (Sophie Rundle), I'll stay put

Theresa May Vladimir Putin (pictured) will hold face-to-face talks during the gathering in Japan this week over how to stabilise ties between the countries.

President Donald Trump arrives in Japan for talks with Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and other leaders after demanding from aboard Air Force One that India pull back tariffs.

The Russian President will meet Theresa May at the G20 in Russia today where the Prime Minister will demand he admits to the Novichok attack and hand over the two spies sent to kill Sergei Skripal.

Vladimir Putin has taken aim at the race to succeed Theresa May as he questioned how a democratic country could install a new prime minister without a national vote.

Bernie Ecclestone, 88, also said he thought Putin should be running Europe and that the invasion of Crimea was just to 'bring Russia back together.'

U.S. Southern Command tweeted video and images from the incident on Friday. They say the SU-30 Flanker 'aggressively shadowed' a U.S. EP-3 aircraft.

'I love it when you call me señorita,' Trump appears to sing, one auto-tuned note at a time, with each word drawn from a different speech. 'I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya.'

Donald Trump's absence from an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Poland in WWII is stoking fears that the security alliance between Washington and Warsaw is weaker than the two governments have let on.

Oleg Smolenkov, the Kremlin aide named in Russia as the CIA's asset at the heart of Putin's regime tracks closely to a source described in the Steele dossier, claims Ilya Shumanov.

Sekinat Ibragimova was publicly shamed on TV for casting spells on Chechnya locals. Pro-Putin local ruler Ramzan Kadyrov had her detained and had her paraphernalia seized.

Alexander 'Sasha' Gabyshev, 60, nicknamed the 'new Rasputin,' in reference to the crazed monk who took a malevolent hold over the last tsar of Russia, was halted in Siberia.

Greta Thunberg, 16, changed her Twitter biography after Vladimir Putin called her 'a poorly informed teenager' who was being 'used by adults' at an energy forum in Moscow on Wednesday.

Siberian shaman Alexander 'Sasha' Gabyshev, 60, nicknamed the 'new Rasputin' has vowed to restart his two-year journey to 'exorcise' Vladimir Putin after he was arrested last month.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkey and its rebel allies had launched a large ground offensive against three villages today and forces thousands of civilians to flee.