Rory McIlroy used Twitter yesterday evening to announce the most prestigious of mid-week dinner dates. The newly-installed world No1 is scheduled to attend a sit-down meal at the White House this evening and, one assumes, both shakes hands and exchange polite banter with the hacker-in-chief.

One wonders quite what Luke Donald and Lee Westwood – snubbed by White House grandees last June – make of it all.

This evening’s event, a state dinner to commemorate the visit of Prime Minister David Cameron, will be attended by a variety of British-born celebrities, including *gasp* Damian Lewis, star of Homeland.

Conor Nagle