We had the threat earlier this year of serious disruptions to life in general and our own little world of European Golf in particular with the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. The rumours spread rapidly through the locker-room that tournaments in Britain and Ireland would be cancelled. Of course, they were never really in doubt. On Tour, a rumour while you are munching your morning cereal, can become "fact" by the time your coffee arrives.

So now that everyone is faced with a real threat you can imagine the magnitude and the embellishment of the stories that spread around the locker room at Saint-Nom-La-Breteche at last week's Lanc⌠me Trophy. The World Cup, the Asian Open, the events scheduled for Asia next year and definitely the Middle Eastern events were all going to be cancelled.

I had arrived in Paris after a long journey back from Korea. When you rely on air travel to get to work each week, naturally you paid extra attention to the gut-wrenching events of the last few weeks. As a frequent flyer, I had previously left checking in to the absolute last minute. I arrived at Seoul airport three hours before my departure. I had checked in and negotiated all security checks two hours and forty minutes before departure, typical.

I was almost disappointed that the security did not take longer. Now I felt insecure; surely they should have squeezed out my toothpaste in a diligent search routine? Apart from seeing a few soldiers roaming about the airport with very big guns, it was business as usual. It was a similarly casual security scene in Hong Kong when I made my connecting flight back to Europe.

The thought did cross my mind as I arrived in France about the TrophΘe Lanc≤me and if it would be played at all. There was official transport from the tournament waiting at Charles de Gaulle airport, which dismissed my fear that the event was cancelled. The fact that in the short space of time of our being there we were delayed leaving while bomb disposal experts blew up an unattended piece of luggage brought a certain sense of the reality of travel in the present climate.

The tournament organisers had spent an anxious weekend negotiating with the Lanc⌠me people, trying to persuade them to continue their support of the event in the wake of the terrorist attacks in America and more specifically, the subsequent withdrawal of their star attraction, Tiger Woods.

There was a real threat that the sponsors would pull out and it took the best negotiating efforts of Peter German, the tournament organiser, to save the event.

The trouble was the tickets for the event had been sold out well in advance due to the star billing of Tiger. It was to be his first appearance in France. A compromise of a reduction in price for next year's tickets with a guaranteed return of the main man was finally agreed.

It was the largest gallery that ever attended the French event. But the feeling of uncertainty was prevalent last week in Paris. The story was the Dunhill Links Challenge was in jeopardy because all the top celebrities had pulled out of the new pro-am event scheduled for the end of October. Dunhill issued a statement to dismiss this as untrue, confirming the event would carry on as originally planned.

Flying out of Paris, check-in and boarding was a more delayed process. The extensive queues were good natured and patient, passengers seemed happy the security was more intensive; not quite the squeezed toothpaste routine but as serious a frisking as I have experienced in a public place.

Some of the Antipodean players have taken a similar attitude to Tiger in their assessment of Western security in this precarious time. Michael Campbell, Greg Turner and Peter O'Malley have closed their second homes in England and headed for their Southern Hemisphere homes in anticipation of a turbulent Northern Hemisphere winter. They are adopting a wait-and-see policy about coming back for the end of season in Europe.

Of course, everyone in the world has been affected somehow by the disaster in the US. It was interesting to observe Nick Faldo's reaction. I had the rare opportunity to be with him in Korea when disaster struck the east coast of the States. I suppose if you were digging for positives out of such an horrific deed, it has got a lot of conversations going amongst people who would normally refrain from any form of casual banter. The normally taciturn Faldo was obviously as shocked as everyone else. He voiced his opinion quite freely. I was taken by his obvious interest in the Ryder Cup, despite not being involved. He was the first in the locker-room in Korea to pose the question about the cancellation of the Ryder Cup. It is obviously still foremost in his mind.

While Nick Faldo was wondering about the future of the Ryder Cup, Australian golfer Wayne Smith was packing for home before the tournament had started. His father in law, an American, worked in the Wall Street area of Manhattan. No one had been able to contact him and there was obvious concern about his safety.

The reality of world security in the near future is that it is going to be uncertain for everyone. The feeling on tour is it may well be a good time to do something for a while that doesn't involve passing though quite so many airports.