Leading article: In the swing

How refreshing, after the temper-fest that was the World Cup, to encounter the stolid civility of golf. We leave behind the headbutts, diving, sledging and all the rest of modern soccer culture and embrace something altogether more sedate.

The only high temperatures at the Open at Hoylake have been registered on the thermometer. The nearest thing we have had to a row was the observation that the handshake between Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo - who had previously fallen out - was "perfunctory". Perfunctory, tell that to Zinedine Zidane.

It is true that, to bring golf into line with other sports, drug testing is soon to be introduced. But few seriously believe this is a sport with serious problems. For golf has self-discipline and etiquette enshrined in its rules. "What has golf ever contributed to civilisation?" some wag once asked. More, perhaps, than you might have imagined.