Having entered 11 teams in the 1999 Golf Masters David Maune was probably tempted to write off the prospects of one of them, Cremorne 1, after just the first week of the competition. True, there were still 28 weeks and 49 tournaments to go but with three of his lineup missing the cut, another finishing outside the top 50 and two not even turning up for action, leaving the team in 14,752th place, it wasn't the most auspicious of starts. But things could only get better, and they did. So much better, in fact, that yesterday we presented David with a cheque for £10,000, after Cremorne 1 fought off the challenge of Pat Corby's Blackbirds 7 and Skylarks 10 and Roger Mullarkey's Twilight Zone to finish top of our final overall leaderboard, with £36,211 to spare.
David may now be tempted to hang a framed photo of Colin Montgomerie over his mantelpiece in Stillorgan after his share of third place at the Lancome Trophy proved enough to lift Cremorne 1 above Blackbirds 7. Not that he knew it would be enough at the time.
"It wasn't looking too good for me there for a while," he said. "I was especially worried about Skylarks 10 because they had a whole clatter of fellas playing, including Montgomerie, and four of the fellas I didn't have were all well placed after their second rounds (Paul Lawrie, Frank Lickliter, Bob May and Chris Perry)." "Then on the Sunday I thought Monty hadn't done enough for me because my lead was only £32,000 going in to the final round in America. All it would have taken was a big finish by Perry for me to finish fourth, but in the end he collapsed completely, and Lickliter fell away too." Indeed they did.
So, in the end, earnings of just under £100,000 in week 29 (from Montgomerie, Retief Goosen, Chris DiMarco, Des Smyth and Steve Pate, who missed the cut in New York) were enough to put Cremorne 1 back on top, a position they had first held in week 12 and one from which they were only dislodged on three occasions, by Blackbirds 7, between then and the end of the competition. Blackbirds 7, who won just £45,571 in week 29 (through Goosen, Paul McGinley, Perry and Ian Garbutt, who missed the cut in Paris) took second place and won Pat a cheque for £1,000 while Roger's Twilight Zone (for whom Montgomerie, Goosen, Lawrie, Perry and Smyth won £113,667) finished in third, winning £500.
"All my tears have gone, I'm feeling a little bit better now," said our runner-up Pat when we spoke to him on Tuesday. "Once Garbutt had missed the cut at the Lancome Trophy I'd given up on Blackbirds 7, but it all looked a bit promising on the Saturday for Skylarks 10. I thought Perry and Lickliter might do it for me but when I saw David's man Chris DiMarco going ahead of Perry in the final round I knew it was all over." As for David, well, he went in to our final week feeling optimistic, but it all nearly became too much. "I had good vibes about this week because I backed the two winners of these two tournaments this time last year - Jimenez at the Lancome Trophy and Perry at the BC Open - so I reckoned it was a lucky week for me." "I was in my local looking at it on the Sunday night - I HAD to go out - but Sky only ever showed the top 10 so I had no idea how the important fellas were doing. Eventually I had it confirmed on the internet by friends of mine that night, so I went to bed knowing I had it won."
The managers of all 19,557 of our teams will be able to watch the golf in peace between now and the Golf Masters' return next year - no more wishing ill on players who don't feature in your line-ups. Many thanks to all who entered the competition (including Matthew Ryan, our final fourball winner who finished second overall in our 1997 competition) and congratulations to David, Pat and Roger.
