GOLF:WITH MOST of the game's big names on duty at the World Matchplay Championship last week, a tournament that couldn't be counted in the competition because of its format, there were modest returns for the bulk of our teams, not least leaders New Bike who picked up less than 400 points from the Madeira Open and the Crowne Plaza Invitational.
Those fortunate/wise enough to appoint Michael Hoey as their captain ahead of his appearance in Portugal had the richest pickings of the week, the Ballymoney man winning his second European Tour title with a two-shot victory. Alas, though, just six per cent of you selected Hoey as your Group Nine player, only Paul McGinley (five per cent) less popular in that batch.
Hoey, as it proved, was just one of five players to break the 100 points mark in week seven, the other four – Zach Johnson, Robert Karlsson, Hunter Mahan and Martin Laird – all finishing in the top 10 at the Crowne Plaza.
Only 13 more players scored at all, with three more – Angel Cabrera, Ben Crane and Vijay Singh – dropping points after missing the cut in Texas. That, then, makes it all the more impressive that 174 of our teams managed to win 1,000 points or more in such an unrewarding week.
A month after Kev 2 was our leading team of the week, manager Kevin Vaughan nearly did it again with Kev 6, only missing out on top spot by 10 points to Peter Shallow’s Salmon’s Five.
That success was enough to lift Peter from 35th on the overall leaderboard up to second, but the gap between Salmon’s Five and New Bike is a not inconsiderable 673 points. Peter has less work to do to catch up with James Rainey on the monthly leaderboard, rising to fifth, 313 points short of James’ leading total.
Brendan Carton was another big mover in week seven, his Eagle Hunters climbing in to the top 10 from 48th, a week after he rose from 89th.
For those of you who have given up on your misfiring line-ups, you can take heart from Brendan’s fruitful fortnight.
And this week’s PGA Championship should prove more productive for our teams, although managers of Pádraig Harrington would hardly have been cheered by news of his withdrawal from the Wentworth tournament after he aggravated a knee injury.
Harrington, aside, most of the leading names will be in the PGA field, including five of the top six players in the world – Phil Mickelson is the only absentee.
Our other counting tournament in week seven is the Byron Nelson Championship, which Mickelson will also miss – partly explaining why he’s our “most fired” player this week. The tournament has just one top-10 player (Matt Kuchar) in its field, and just four from the top 20, but Jason Day will be there, the Australian is our second leading points earner, behind Luke Donald, and, naturally, by far the most popular player in Group Seven with 31 per cent of managers hiring him.
Here’s to a more rewarding week, then – for most of you, it couldn’t possibly be any less rewarding than week seven.
To access the competition on our website
(irishtimes.com/fantasygolf) each week you need to enter a pin code – this week’s code is ‘eagle’.
