Edward Staunton was beginning to get that sinking feeling late on Sunday afternoon, as he watched live coverage of the British Masters and the Texas Open at his home in Mullinahone, Co Tipperary. All six of his Woosnam's Wonders had completed their rounds, winning a total of £120,321, but two of Matthew Ryan's Tiger Tenacious 2 - Sam Torrance in England and David Ogrin in America - still had to finish. Staunton had his sums done - if the pair won £98,176 between them, the 17year-old from Castletroy, Co Limerick, would beat him to the £10,000 first prize.
Torrance finished on 281, taking a share of sixth place and winning £71,250, leaving Ryan needing Ogrin to finish in the top 14 in Texas. Just two more birdies in his final round and Ogrin would have made it but a 70 left him tied for 20th, leaving Ryan just £11,243 short of victory.
And so ended, in his own words, a "roller coaster of a weekend" for Staunton, the winner of the 1997 Golf Masters and a cheque for £10,000 . . . which he says he will have to pay to his "psychiatrist and analyst for the attention over the past four weeks."
Woosnam's Wonders' original line-up (one of 400 teams entered by Staunton in the competition) was made up of Woosnam, Jim Furyk, Darren Clarke, Retief Goosen, David Carter, Bob Tway and Scott McCarron. Carter was temporarily replaced by Paul Curry while he recovered from illness early in the season and Tway and McCarron made way for Jose Maria Olazabal and Stephen Ames in week 15.
Despite coming so close to victory, Ryan insists he is "delighted" with second place, for which he wins £1,000. "Really I had put winning aside, my aim was second so I'm thrilled to even get that. By the way," he added, "do you know where Tiger Tenacious 1 finished?" Yes . . . in 4,656th place.
"There's been great excitement around here . . . but my Dad's got an awful lot of praise because he's Matt as well. People have gone up to him, in the bank and all over the town, to congratulate him on how well the team was doing," said Matthew Junior. Meanwhile Matthew Senior had a special request. "Do you know what you could do for me now - get golf on the Leaving Cert and he'd get an A1," he said of his son, who has just started his final year in school. We'll do our best.
As Matthew Snr inquired, when we rang to congratulate his son, "what about the poor fella who was lying second last week and thought he'd be put out of his job?" Well, by Friday afternoon Kieran O'Toole had given up all hope of finishing first after Lee Westwood missed the cut and, in the end, was relieved to hold off the challenge of Jack Slane to take third and a cheque for £500.
We are happy to report, however, that Kieran is still employed and has also become a bit of a celebrity on his local course. "I was playing down at the club on Sunday morning and there were guys walking across the fairway asking me how I was doing and how the team was doing, guys who I'd never spoken to in my life. So this was kind of my Andy Warhol time, my 15 minutes of fame. Anyway I've cracked the secret so I'll win it next year, talk to you then." What's the secret? "Not telling, you'll only print it."
James Creed of Termonfeckin, Co Louth, is our final weekly winner of a four-ball in Mount Juliet and we also offer our, er, congratulations to Rory Timlin, of Salthill in Galway, for coming last in the 1997 Golf Masters, an achievement (of sorts) in itself. The culprits, aka The Underdogs (David Feherty, Neal Briggs, Derrick Cooper, Mike Harwood, Miles Tunnicliff, Peter Teravainen and Brandt Jobe) managed to amass combined earnings of £409,108, some distance short of the average score in the competition of £2,021,658.
