When you make your living by putting padded leather gloves on your hands before smashing people about the head and torso and in return face the equivalent of having a portable typewriter thrown repeatedly into your face, hitting a golf ball rather a lot of times in front of a few spectators does not constitute an embarrassment or a hardship. In fact, for Wladimir Klitschko, the world heavyweight boxing champion, it was a pleasure to play golf at Kingsbarns, near St Andrews, yesterday.

Welcome, in case you do not know about the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, to the different elements that make up this autumn spectacular that requires an amateur to be paired with a professional for 54 holes. Samuel L. Jackson had a couple of crisp exchanges with spectators at Kingsbarns, where he was playing with Michael Campbell.

“Sam, Sam,” one spectator called out, to which Jackson responded: “I am Samuel, not Sam.”

On the 1st tee a small boy asked the film star: “Mr Jackson, Mr Jackson, can I have a photograph?”

“Sorry son, I haven't got any,” Jackson replied.

Klitschko, the IBF and WBO heavyweight champion, was paired with Soren Hansen. The debonair Dane with the dry humour and the ubiquitous Ukrainian who speaks so softly that you can hardly hear him fared well, thanks to Hansen's 64, which equalled the day's lowest score at that venue, which shares the event with Carnoustie and St Andrews. Ross Fisher was the other player to go round in eight under par, one stroke fewer than Martin Kaymer, whose brother Philip was his playing partner and whose father Horst was his caddie.

In the ring, Klitschko's fists do the damage. On the golf course they do the same. “Out of ten drives I can sometimes hit one straight and as far as the pros,” Klitschko said. “The trouble is, the other nine can go anywhere. If I swing easier, I have more control.”

Klitschko's handicap at PGA National golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, is 36. Here he is expected to play off 18. “It is no problem,” he said, although witnesses reported that making contact with the ball definitely was for him. “There was some cheering out there,” he said. “I loved it.”

When top-class sportsmen in a field involving hand, eye and ball co-ordination turn to golf, they sometimes expect to be better at it than they are. It is the “if I can hit a moving ball with a racket then I can surely hit a stationary ball with a golf club” syndrome.

Not so Tim Henman, who is well aware of the difficulty of the sport, even though he has become rather good at it, playing off 2 at Sunningdale. Henman certainly impressed Colin Montgomerie, his playing partner. “He's good,” the Scot said. “He had 14 pars. That is good golf.”

Montgomerie did not describe his own golf in such terms. His 70, he said, was inconsistent. “Bogey, birdie, bogey,” he said. “That is how it has been all season. Roll on 2009.”

Henman has no plans to emulate Ivan Lendl, the former tennis player, and have a go at the professional ranks. He is aware of his frailties. “What is striking when you play with someone like Colin is how well he strikes the ball and how consistently and effortlessly he strikes it,” Henman said. “I am aware that this is a pro event for them and I want to make sure I don't get in the way. I let them get on with the real golf.”

- Justin Rose and Kate, his wife, are expecting their first child in March 2009. The Times columnist, who won three of Europe’s points in the defeat by the United States in the Ryder Cup last month, has not settled his tournament schedule, but it is expected that he will appear in the World Match Play Championship in Spain at the end of February so the baby will be born in the US.