Good: The discovery that Tim Finchem, the commissioner of the PGA Tour in the United States and the second most important man in golf after Tiger Woods, is a Rolling Stones fan. It makes him seem more human. “I can’t get no satisfaction” does not seem to apply to a man who calls the tune in golf and whose favourite track is Sympathy for the Devil.

Also good was the response last weekend by George O’Grady, the executive director of the European Tour, to being called “weak” by Emma Villacieros, the president of the Spanish golf federation, at a speech during the Volvo Masters at Valderrama. It may have been a slip of the tongue because Villacieros spoke in English, not her first language, but it jarred nonetheless. O’Grady, who might have struggled a little to get out of the shadow of Ken Schofield, his predecessor, dismissed the accusation with an emphatic denial and then, as if inspired, spoke movingly of his vision of the European Tour’s future.

Bad: The row between the European Tour and International Sports Management about the Barclays Singapore Open that clashed with last week’s Volvo Masters. Ernie Els and Lee Westwood, ISM clients, competed in the Far East, honouring contractual commitments that had been made before the European Tour committed to the same date for their season-closing Volvo Masters. On television O’Grady praised IMG, a rival organisation whose clients include Colin Montgomerie and Luke Donald, who played in Spain. O’Grady tried to bring a dignified halt to the row last Thursday – but may have only partially succeeded.

Good: The rise of Justin Rose, 27, Nick Dougherty, 25, and the prodigiously talented Rory McIlroy, 18. Europe needs more good, young golfers to come through and, by triumphing in the Volvo Masters on Sunday, Rose won a second tournament on the 2007 European Tour schedule as well as the Order of Merit. Dougherty won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and McIlroy had two top-five finishes in his first three tournaments after turning professional in September. Also the return to form of Lee Westwood was welcome, as were the performances of Rose, Westwood, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, who all survived the halfway cut in the four major championships.

Bad: Luke Donald’s slump in form. The Englishman was ninth in the world rankings and seventh in the European Order of Merit last December. He has now fallen to seventeenth in the world, 38th in Europe. Injuries have hampered David Howell, Donald’s Ryder Cup teammate, too, and from third in the Order of Merit last year, he is now 142nd and has played only five tournaments since mid-August. And sympathy to Darren Clarke, who has played four rounds in only eight of his 20 events on the European Tour schedule and fallen out of the top 200 in the world rankings.

Good: The sight of women golfers entering the venerable clubhouse of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews during the Women’s British Open in midsummer. One female competitor even claimed that she changed her baby’s nappy in the men’s locker-room.

The walls did not come tumbling down and the outside world viewed the R & A, a male preserve because it does not have any female members, in a different light. Also the election of Lewine Mair, golf correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, to chairmanship of the Association of Golf Writers, the first woman to hold such a role in any similar-sized journalistic body.

Bad: The picture of Ross Fisher hitting a four-iron for his second shot to the 560-yard 4th hole at Valderrama. A little assistance from the wind? Perhaps. But then Graeme McDowell and Justin Rose both hit seven-irons for their second shots to the 17th green in Sunday’s final round. The 17th measures 536 yards and has a water feature in front of it. There was a light wind assistance then, too, but even so, the distance the ball is travelling now is beyond a joke.

Good: The presentation of Royal County Down golf course for the Walker Cup in September. It was not a better decision than to pick Royal Liverpool for the 2006 Open because that was perhaps the best ever, but it was a very close second. The course looked magnificent.

Bad: The growing tendency to narrow fairways, lengthen holes and add unnatural-looking water hazards as the only means of defending a hole. What about using the topography, strategically placed bunkers, fairways that narrow the farther you get from the tee and imaginatively shaped greens? Anybody who thinks that par-fours have to be nearly 500 yards to be difficult should have seen the 3rd in the Open at Carnoustie, the 5th in the US Open at Oakmont and the 7th on the West Course at Wentworth, one of the greatest par-fours in the world. Not one of these holes measures 400 yards, yet all are potential card-wreckers.