Still less do you say, as Kerr has, that some Irish football "pundits" want their own team to lose.Kerr's sensitivity to criticism has been building for some time, and apparently much of it is to do with the reluctance of his employers, the Football Association of Ireland, to renegotiate his contract before the World Cup qualifying campaign is settled. The fact that Daly has visited most sections of hell since winning his majors had not interfered with Woods' desire to win in any situation. No, said Tiger, he was still happy to win, but it was the way that happened that concerned him.As Daly confirmed when he marched off the green locked back into some of the old torment, this would have been the victory that would have flooded him with new life and conviction. Yet when Daly's short putt rolled past the hole, Woods' regret was palpable It wasn't, he explained, that he was on a charity mission. He is widely seen as the smug, relentless over-achiever, a man who has constantly stripped down his own humanity in pursuit of victory. They had died by brutality and they though they might now survive by it.

Of course they didn't.Next summer such atavism will be, as it should, the most distant memory. It is something to lighten our agonising over whether or not Rooney will prove to be Eriksson's vein of gold, as is the certainty that the pull of the World Cup sooner or later carries us beyond the most narrow of self-interest. Indeed, this one, more than any other in 35 years, promises to turn most of the world Brazilian for at least a day. England may be struggling, but at least the game itself could not be in better or more healing hands.The unforgettable compassion of a true masterExamples of what sport is supposed to be about are not so frequent that we can skip by the expression that crossed the face of Tiger Woods when John Daly three-putted away what would have been one of the most spectacular redemptions seen this side of the Sea of Galilee.The pot held