In his "Way of the World" column in the Daily Telegraph last Tuesday, Craig Brown humorously listed "The 37 best hiding places for Osama bin Laden". It got me wondering where the best hiding locations might be for a golfing bandit.

An obvious one would be a society outing where the top prize was a dozen golf balls. Another would be at a meeting of the club handicapping committee. Then there would be the final turkey competition, in which previous winners were cut two strokes for each bird they had bagged so far.

Incidentally, even in the current climate, bin Laden is a lot more accessible than some of golf's leading players on a slow news day. In which context, it has to be said that the vast majority of the Irish players, past and present, are positive gems.