With just 108 of the 240 players on our list adding to their scores at last weekend's Turespana Masters and Bell-South Classic, week 10 of the Golf Masters proved to be a less than memorable one for the majority of our teams. The failure of six of the seven Irish players in action to make the cut also contributed to an average score of just £52,812 per team, over £12,000 less than Paul McGinley's earnings for his share of third place in Spain.
Tom Stapleton of Templeogue in Dublin certainly isn't complaining about his weekend, however. Not only did he finish top of our weekly leaderboard with the Hermitage Strikers, he also backed one of his line-up, Miguel Angel Jimenez, to win the Turespana Masters . . . at 20 to 1. Which he did. "Ah, it's just luck - you win some, you lose some," Tom explained, modestly. "I backed Fred Couples to win the Masters at 36 to 1 and he tied for second, so you don't win them all."
Tom's prospects of winning a four-ball in Mount Juliet weren't helped when two of his Hermitage Strikers, Eamonn Darcy and Andrew Sherborne, took the weekend off, and they diminished some more when Seve Ballesteros missed the cut in Majorca (£500) - but then the remaining four members of his line-up won £295,167 between them. Miguel Angel Jimenez and Miguel Martin took first and second, respectively, in the Spanish event while over in Georgia Tiger Woods won his first PGA title in 10 months, just when Tom was beginning to question the wisdom of spending almost half his budget on the £5.5 million rated player. Hal Sutton's share of 24th place added another £15,167 to the team's total, helping Tom pip the unlucky Andrew Foran, of Celbridge, Co Kildare, by just £1,938. Andrew also had Woods and Martin in his Dream Team but McGinley, John Huston and Domingo Hospital's combined earnings weren't quite enough to help him top the weekly leaderboard. A polo shirt for you, Andrew.
David Duval, who tied for 14th at the Bell-South Classic, overtakes Mark Calcavecchia at the top of our leading earners' list this week, followed by Lee Westwood, Bob Estes and Jeff Maggert - Tiger Woods moves up to ninth place. Our resident `Statto' tells us that Estes has moved ahead of Glen Day in the `best value for money' list (based on earnings to date in relation to the cost of the player). Mathias Gronberg, Andrew Sherborne and John Huston complete the top five with Miguel Martin's second at the Turespana Masters lifting him to ninth overall. The average overall earnings to date are £623,996, less than half Kevin Barry's leading total. Kevin's Augusta Special took the lead in week six, slipped to second the following week but have held top spot for the past three weeks. Paul Sheehan's Pauly 8 stay in second while Fergal Lynch (10th to third), Robert Sinnott (16th to fourth) and the manager with the oddest name, Lacy Walsh Solicitors (19th to seventh) are our biggest movers in the top half of the leaderboard this week. Last year's bottom placed manager, Rory Timlin, has soared to 37th overall while another top 50 newcomer, Pat Corby, in 30th place, should really think about renaming his team `Tottenham 0' after the season they've had.
Week 11 should prove a little more fruitful for most of our managers with a strong field entered for the International Open in Oxfordshire. Colin Montgomerie returns to action after taking a month off while Darren Clarke heads an Irish entry that includes Padraig Harrington, Ronan Rafferty, Paul McGinley, Philip Walton, Raymond Burns, Eamonn Darcy and Des Smyth. Meanwhile Tiger Woods defends his Byron Nelson Classic title at Las Colinas this week.
