If Fergal Kent was Tiger Woods then the rest of our 20,000 Golf Masters managers could tear up their team sheets, bin their PINs and work on other ways of winning £15,000. Once ahead, Woods rarely backs off as he has shown in winning on each of the last 17 occasions that he has led (or shared the lead) going into a tournament's final round.
If Kent had anything like the same record then he would be a hot favourite to take our top prize having seen his "Kent 5" selection move from fourth after week one to third after week two and now into first place. The harsh reality is that Kent's Golf Masters management record is of the journeyman rather than the superstar variety and of the five teams he entered last year, none finished in the top 1,000.
Also working against him is the fact that he has already used two of four permitted transfers for the team. Oh what a cruel world it is! Kent showed zero loyalty to Jose Coceres after his Desert Classic victory, firing him in favour of Notah Begay who had just ended a brief spell behind bars on drink-driving charges and, somewhat more profitably so far, he ditched Lee Westwood to bring in Davis Love.
Love, with £80,000 for second place in Bay Hill, was the chief contributor to Kent's modest week-three total of £91,583. To secure a four-ball in Tulfarris you needed to be one of the crafty managers with both Tiger Woods (Bay Hill winner) and Niclas Fasth (Madeira winner) in your side. Golf Masters veteran Ciaran Gleeson garnered £200,000 from that pair and backed up by Billy Mayfair (£32,000 for tied 10th at Bay Hill) and Thomas Gogele (£39,750 for tied seventh at Madeira) he took the weekly honours with "Where's Faldo No 2?"
Gleeson, a publican from Mount Merrion in Dublin, seems intent on entertaining his best customers at the top courses in the country at our expense. Only last Friday he had three of them down at Mount Juliet on foot of winning a weekly prize with his "Shank You Very Much" selection near the end of last season.
"It was in good condition and we really enjoyed ourselves. Now we've golf and dinner at Tulfarris to look forward to. I've never played it but I've heard superb reports," says the Elm Park member whose Golf Masters success is part luck, part genius and part hard graft.
Gleeson is a keen student of the form and tipped 40 to 1 chance Fasth for Madeira success. He already has a wager down on Tiger Woods for the Masters at 6 to 1 (since cut to 3 to 1) and if you want to go with a tipster in form he sees Tom Lehman as good value at 33 to 1 for this week's Tournament Players Championship, with Woods as the obvious title favourite.
As for Golf Masters transfers, he's holding tight but will consider "getting rid of the Duffy Waldorfs after the Florida Swing". Clearly a pro!
Gleeson isn't the only proven winner showing up on our leader-boards. Last season's overall champion David Maune made the weekly list with "Cremorne 8". Pat Corby's identical "Tallow 6" and "Tallow 8" line-ups are tied for 23rd overall and Brian Murnaghan and Des Wickham are also making their presence felt. All will be keeping an eye on this week's Rio de Janeiro Open and the Tournament Players Championship where the 19 most expensive Golf Masters players will be competing.
