Just about the only consolation that David Maune can take from week 21 of the 1999 Golf Masters is that things really can't get much worse. It's not that the members of his Cremorne 1 line-up played poorly, it's just that six of them didn't play at all - and the one who did, Des Smyth, missed the cut at the Dutch Open. So, having seen just £500 added to the team account, it will come as no surprise whatsoever to David that he has been knocked off the top of the overall leader-board, having led the competition for the past nine weeks.
"I suppose this means the pressure's on me now," said Pat Corby, our new leader, when we spoke with him earlier in the week. It certainly does. Not that it was a stress-free weekend for Pat either. Only three of his Blackbirds 7 line-up were in action and one, Willie Wood, missed the cut at the John Deere Classic in Illinois. The other two, Ian Garbutt and Chris Perry, came perilously close to having the weekend off too but Garbutt made it by two shots at the Dutch Open and Perry by one in America.
Garbutt went on to shoot rounds of 68 and 65 to take a share of eighth place (winning £33,429) while Perry did even better - rounds of 63 and 64 moved him up to joint fifth and won Blackbirds 7 another £50,000, moving the team £1,116 clear of Cremorne 1. Just a month ago they trailed the same team by almost a quarter of a million pounds.
If Colin Montgomerie was the man chiefly responsible for keeping Cremorne 1 on top for almost two months Perry has been the star for Blackbirds 7 in recent weeks, averaging £42,100 from his last four tournaments. "I might hang on to him so," said Pat, who still has one transfer left to make, unlike David, who has used all four of his.
Pat now has a remarkable three teams in the top five and eight in the top 50. Blackbirds 10 held on to third place, despite having only two players in action at the weekend (Perry to the rescue again) while Blackbirds 8 moved up from ninth to fifth with the help of Scott Verplank (who tied for eighth in Illinois) and . . . you've guessed it . . . Perry. The weekend wasn't without its misfortune for Pat, though. David Howell, who is a member of Blackbirds 10 and 8, was forced to withdraw from the Dutch Open early in the first round with an infected toenail.
At least Howell had a good excuse for not winning his managers any money but quite how the members of Santon Swingers 5 accounted to their boss, Pat Walsh of Kildare, for their Golf Masters' form up until week 21, we're not so sure. Last week they were in 16,519th position - but, lo and behold, they've leapt to 10,247th this week and won their stunned manager a four-ball.
Pat is one of only 130 managers to employ JL Lewis who, up until the John Deere Classic, had won just £60,764. Lee Westwood, another Santon Swingers player, is currently in 785 teams and before the Dutch Open had earnings of just over £360,000 - not bad, but for a player who cost his managers £5.3 million not great either (Montgomerie, who cost just £200,000 more, had won twice as much as Westwood before last weekend). But Lewis, Westwood and the Santon Swingers all came good in week 21. Darren Clarke, Doug Barron and David Gilford added £90,000 to the £200,000 won by Lewis and Westwood, helping Pat beat Noel Cullinane of Enniskerry to a four-ball. There are now just 14 tournaments to go, beginning with the Greater Hartford Open and the European Open at the K Club, which is our penultimate bonus tournament.
