Davis Love and Kieran O'Toole have a lot in common. Up until last weekend they seemed destined to be golf's nearly-men, Love stuck with the tag of "one of the greatest golfers never to win a major", O'Toole stuck behind Edward Staunton on our overall leaderboard week after week after week. But, finally, in week 25 of this year's competition, the nearly men made it to the top. Love collected a Golf Masters cheque for £200,000 by winning the USPGA Championship at New York, and Kieran brought Edward's seven week run as our overall leader to an end. Three weeks ago his Chislers team was £160,000 behind Woosnam's Wonders: this week they're £31,000 ahead.
Winged Foot GC proved a happy hunting ground for the Chislers, whose combined earnings of £186,667 included substantial contributions from Jim Furyk, Scott McCarron and Lee Westwood. Jesper Parnevik and Jose-Maria Olazabal chipped in with another £9,500, while Eamonn Darcy and Roger Chapman had the weekend off.
It wasn't such a fruitful weekend for Woosnam's Wonders who won just £96,667: Darren Clarke, Ian Woosnam and Olazabal missed the cut, Retief Goosen barely made it, leaving Furyk the job of saving the day with a cheque for £90,667 (Stephen Ames and David Carter were resting).
Of our leading contenders, however, none had a happier USPGA than Theresa O'Sullivan of Dublin. Three weeks ago Theresa's Trashers weren't even in our overall top 50 (although they had been there before); this week they're up to third. Third, fifth and joint sixth finishes for Jeff Maggert, Tom Kite and Furyk (respectively) helped the Trashers amass earnings of £365,167, making their manager a serious contender for that £10,000 first prize.
But, for now, everyone's chasing Kieran O'Toole, and although he's pleased with his success to date he suspects he will pay a very large price for it by week 30 of the competition.
"If it carries on like this I'll be kicked out of my job and I'll be divorced," he says, admitting he's failing to cope with the strain that comes with Golf Masters life at the top . . . with five weeks still to go. (We promised to award him a polo shirt if, indeed, he loses his job and his marriage. "That will be ample compensation, thank you," he replied.)
The chief source of Kieran's stress is that he has three transfers left to make. "The nerves would be fine if all I had to do was sit back and wait, but because I have the three transfers left it's, `Should I take him out, should I put him in' all the time. My friends are fed up with me, all I talk to them about is golfers - `What do you think about Costantino Rocca? Should I transfer him in?'."
Amazingly enough, the Chislers (aka Colm (14), Cian (10) and nine-year-old Jack) is Kieran's only team in the competition, unlike most of our managers who have numerous entries.
Kieran, who describes himself as a "terribly boring middle-aged golf nut", made it to the top on week 17 but "fell like a stone the following week" and has been looking up at Edward Staunton since. "I was kind of hoping I'd just go first in week 30, that would have made life a lot easier," says the Dublin-born resident of Baltinglass, Co Wicklow.
Not a bad weekend either for Mark McGowan of Drumshambo, Co Leitrim, whose PGA18 team won him a fourball at Mount Juliet. Top five finishes for Justin Leonard, Maggert and Kite, along with another £50,000 won by Kenny Perry and Don Pooley, gave the team the highest score of the week, £460,500. (Only 1.4 per cent of our managers shared in Love's £200,000 success).
In response to some queries we've received about the remainder of the Golf Masters' schedule, there are nine tournaments left in the competition, beginning with this week's European Open in Kildare (a bonus tournament) and the World Series of Golf in Ohio. After that there's the International Open and the Greater Milwaukee Open in week 27; the European Masters and Canadian Open in week 28; the Lancome Trophy on the penultimate weekend of the Golf Masters and, finally, the British Masters (another bonus tournament) and the Texas Open.
