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 US Open is set to become the third American major to be postponed and will now be played in early September, according to a report in the New York Post.

Tommy Fleetwood hopes the Ryder Cup can act as an 'amazing torch' after the coronavirus pandemic. The flagship contest between Europe and the United States remains in doubt.

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.

Northern Irishman Rory Mcilroy showed off a few of his trademark moves including keepy-ups on his club before smashing the ball into the trees.

EXCLUSIVE BY DEREK LAWRENSON: Europe's captain Padraig Harrington could hardly be any clearer when it comes to the two schools of thought regarding this year's Ryder Cup.

INTERVIEW BY DEREK LAWRENSON: Westwood thought he'd be playing lnear the site of the Battle of the Alamo, not at home in Newcastle doing a jigsaw re-enacting the Battle of Waterloo.

EXC INTERVIEW BY DEREK LAWRENSON: If you had to rank Sir Nick Faldo's six major championship wins, his successful defence of his Masters title 30 years ago might well finish bottom.

DEREK LAWRENSON: In 1995, Woods felt he'd stepped inside 'Disneyland, fantasyland, all rolled into one', when he cast his eye over Augusta National ahead of playing it for the first time.

The most important day in the Christian calendar has often coincided with a joyous one for golf followers. This year, they should've been enjoying the 18th Masters staged on Easter Sunday.

Count the previously buoyant European Tour as another branch of sport staring into a financial black hole owing to the effects of coronavirus.

The rigorous testing procedures put forward by the PGA Tour will involve players, caddies and officials being sent testing kits - already on mass order - to their homes.

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: There is still a window before the Ryder Cup organisers make a final decision on whether it will go ahead as planned. But it's fair to say the mood has changed.

DEREK LAWRENSON - WORLD OF GOLF: It was the hardest piece that I've ever had to write - and the lively aftermath was far, far worse. Seve Ballesteros tore into me in front of my peers.

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.

Theresa May and husband Philip touched down in Osaka, where world leaders are gathering for the G20 summit of powerful nations.

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.

Theresa May is holding face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin in Osaka, Japan in an attempt to thaw relations between Russia and Britain as she prepares to quit as PM next month.

President Donald Trump caught up with Argentina's first lady María Juliana Awada Baker during a G20 photo op, chatting with her several times during a photo event.

Putin's decree released on Wednesday formalizes Russia's departure from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with the United States following Washington's withdrawal.

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.

The Russian President used the craft, a C-Explorer 3.11, to explore the Soviet Shchuka-class submarine Shch-308 which sunk in the Baltic Sea in October 1942 after hitting a German mine.

Environmentalists have warned that the scale of the blazes, across central and east Russia, could accelerate global warming, aside from any immediate effects on the health of inhabitants.

U.S. diplomat Jon Huntsman has resigned as Donald Trump's ambassador to Russia.

The spike in radiation in Russia yesterday may have been caused when one of Vladimir Putin's top secret Zircon hypersonic missiles exploded during tests, according to news reports in the country.

Vladimir Putin vowed to prevent the emergence of mass protests yesterday speaking to French President Emmanuel Macron in southern France .

Russia's Soyuz rocket with Vladimir Putin's six-foot tall humanoid robot on board has failed to dock at the International Space Stations. The setback has been blamed on issues with docking systems.

O'Donnell claimed on the air that a source had told him 'the co-signers of Donald Trump's Deutsche Bank loans are Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.' Trump's lawyers threatened to sue.

Volodymyr Tsemakh, an alleged separatist in the area where the Malaysian Airlines jet was shot down in 2014, was freed by a Kiev appeals court today pending further investigation.

Putin (pictured today) voted in Moscow elections which have taken on a rare significance after a series of candidates were detained and barred from the ballot, sparking mass protests.

Russian media has reported that the mole extracted in 2017 may be Oleg Smolenkov, an aide of senior diplomat and former ambassador to the U.S. Yury Ushakov (pictured).

The CIA pulled a spy with deep access inside the Kremlin out of Russia in 2017 because of leaks, and not because President Donald Trump had compromised the secret agent.

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a report Israel most likely spied on President Trump using devices that mimic cell towers a 'blatant lie.'

Russian president Vladimir Putin hailed Khabib Nurmagomedov as a 'strong, tough fighter' after the unbeaten MMA fighter retained his UFC lightweight title.

Emily Thornberry today accused Donald Trump of 'trying to tear freedom apart' as she demanded the end of the 'strongman era' of world politics.

Rudy Giuliani (left) has pulled out of a scheduled appearance at a Russia-backed trade conference which Vladimir Putin (right) and his top advisor, Sergev Glazyev (center), would also appear at.

The White House is said to have attempted to limit access to President Trump's conversations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked about Democrats' push for the publication of Putin-Trump calls, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that 'the publication is possible only on mutual accord.'

The WHO released the report on Tuesday that put a decrease in the country's alcohol consumption down to a raft of measures brought in under sport-loving President Vladimir Putin.

The unit is comprised of veterans from Russia's bloodiest wars, including hardened service personnel who fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine.

Mazlum Abdi, the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), phoned Moscow to 'thank Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) and Russia for their keenness in defusing the war'.

A KGB profile belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been released to the public at an exhibition of declassified documents at the central state archive in St. Petersburg.

'It's better to replace it with the Great Russian Encyclopedia in electronic form…here it will be in any case, reliable information in a good modern form.' Putin said in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asserted that Russia will continue to expand its weapons development during a meeting with top officials and prosecutors on Wednesday.

The new site costing £20.7million will be a web version of the Great Russian Encyclopaedia and show 'reliable information in a good, modern way'.

The briefcase, which has a personalised key code, a flash card and is under constant supervision, is said to remotely control Russia's nuclear arsenal.

IAN HERBERT: The cries are laughable if anyone could find it within them to raise a smile about this mendacious, risible, pariah sporting nation.

Alexander Gabyshev was arrested two days into his planned 5,000-mile trek to Moscow, three months after his first journey was cut short when he was detained in September and flown back to Siberia.