Golf: It has been a quiet week at Golf Masters Headquarters, as it was always likely to be after the double-money excitement of the US Masters. The Seville Open was only added to the European Tour schedule after our registration period had commenced so the MCI Heritage was our sole counting event.
In the circumstances it would be easy to forgive our managers for being a bit dozy but that is precisely why we drop the odd hint in these columns. In our game if you snooze you lose and no less than 50 managers seized on our tip from two weeks ago that Stewart Cink was in form and worth buying.
He picked up 42,000 for tied 17th at the Masters and last Sunday added another 100,000 when he won the Heritage with the second-biggest final-round comeback in the history of the PGA Tour (the biggest was at the 1999 British Open, which Paul Lawrie won having started the final day 10 shots off the pace). On Sunday, Cink scorched around the Harbour Town Links in 64 to come from nine behind and force a play-off with third-round leader Ted Purdy, which Cink won with a birdie at the fifth extra hole.
It was his second time to win the Heritage and he is now the only player costing over 1.5 million in the top 10 of our value-for-money table. Cink, with Golf Masters earnings of 206,250 for a cost of 2.6 million, is eighth in that much-studied category.
Five other things you may have forgotten or probably never knew about Stewart Cink: He was Rookie of the Year and the only rookie to qualify for the Tour Championship in 1997. His earnings that year ($809,580) were less than his earnings last week ($864,000). A par at the final hole would have won him the 2001 US Open but he made a double bogey.He has made the cut in his last 18 PGA Tour events, and is second only to Tiger Woods for consecutive cuts made. He is now among the favourite golfers of Séamus O'Toole, who transferred him into his David's Go selection just in time for the Heritage.
O'Toole won a fourball to Carton House a couple of seasons ago and for a while last year fancied his chances of overall success. However, a transfer went awry when he hired Justin Rose rather than Ian Poulter and he ended up in sixth place. He seems to have got the transfer business sussed this year as apart from Cink he brought in Mark O'Meara and the pair earned a combined 113,500 more than Patrick Sjoland and Scott McCarron, who were ditched.
In a low-scoring week when 889 teams won nothing at all, the new recruits helped David's Go to total earnings of 247,333 and a hugely impressive winning margin of over 50,000. His other scorers were Ernie Els and Carl Pettersson with 61,667 each for tied-third finishes and Heath Slocum with €10,000 for tied-32nd. The average team earnings for the week were just €27,315.
The David's Go total is €515,750, which is just outside the top 100 and is more than twice the average of 238,809.
