There are days when the bad news overtakes the good news - maybe more often than we imagine - and today seems to be one of those days.

Late last night, the news broke about the loss of Michael Jackson and whilst I may not necessarily mourn the loss of the man, I do mourn the loss of a towering talent. It happens a lot, doesn`t it - people possessed of talents that `ordinary` folk can only dream of and admire are taken from us often too young, but whose character, lifestyle, weaknesses, excesses even, make the `ordinary` glad of their ordinariness.

Farah Fawcett also left us yesterday. I don`t know much about her, but I have my memories of Charlie`s Angels, that flowing hair, constant smile and a seemingly endless supply of teeth making for an iconic image. Maybe that`s all she was - an image to be admired, but it seems that once again there was an `underworld` to her life - another of excess that may have contributed to her early departure. I don`t know.

So where`s the good news in all of this? Well, it came yesterday with the televised interview with Seve Ballesteros, who faced the cameras for the first time in months following his operations to remove a brain tumour. I`ve mentioned before that as a golfer at the very other extreme of golfing ability to that of `Seve,` I have long admired his own towering talent, his engaging personality and his infectious enthusiasm for life.

And I hope for his sake that he can regain even more of the joi de vivre that has eluded him over his troubled times. As for me, I will continue my own private battle with the royal and ancient game in certain knowledge that I will always be dreadful at it. But however badly I might play, at least I haven`t had Seve`s problems and certainly not those of Michael Jackson. Maybe there`s a lot to be said for `ordinary` after all.