Week 19 and it's getting to the stage where Tony Murnaghan's car will be able to find its own way to Mount Juliet. Only two weeks ago we rang to congratulate him on winning his second fourball in a year, when Sultans Of Swing topped the weekly list - this time Spiders From Mars have won him a another trip to Kilkenny.
Tony was one of a few managers who took advantage of the fact that the Loch Lomond Invitational began on a Wednesday, allowing him to study the first round scores before leaping in to the transfer market.
With his Spiders From Mars line-up unchanged since the start of the competition Tony was able to fire Tiger Woods, Jose Maria Olazabal, Steve Pate and Olin Browne and replace them with Ian Woosnam, David Howell, Gary Orr and the eventual winner, Lee Westwood, all of whom were well placed after the first round.
Between them the new signings won (pound sign) £269,000, with Woosnam and Howell taking a share of second place and Orr tying for seventh with Colin Montgomerie. Stephen Allen added another £24,429 to the total, which was brought to £294,429 with the £1,000 Billy Mayfair and Des Smyth won between them for missing the cut.
However, having used up all their transfers on their top team Tony and his brother Brian (who finished eighth on the weekly leaderboard with Toothless Tigers) were unable to tinker with the line-up of Bargain Basement, but still managed to move from third to second overall after winning a respectable £90,500 - over £52,000 more than the average Week 19 earnings. Of the four members of Bargain Basement in action at the weekend Howell was the leading earner in Scotland with £63,000, while Olazabal and Thomas Bjorn won £10,750 each and Glen Day another £6,000.
Nobody, though, had a happier Week 19 than Fergal Lynch of Skerries, who saw Fergal's Fancies leap from 25th overall to first, after they won £217,250 at Loch Lomond - enough to put them in fourth place on the weekly leaderboard.
Back in week five Fergal rose to second overall and has been a regular on the Top 50 since then, but some shrewd transfer activity in recent weeks has made him a serious contender for that £10,000 first prize.
Fergal brought Gary Orr in to the team a fortnight ago and has been rewarded with winnings of £114,250, while Olazabal and Howell have also proved to be successful signings. The line-up - completed by Westwood, John Huston, Bob Estes and Raymond Burns - will remain unchanged until the end of the competition. Last week's leader, Robert Sinnott, has dropped to third overall while Paul Sheehan's Pauly 7, 8 and 2 and now sitting in fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively, providing him with an impressive three-pronged challenge.
Thomas Kirby's Moneyspinners are up to seventh from 12th, Niall Murray has slipped from second to eighth, while Charles Daly has risen from 16th to ninth. Kevin Barry's slide downwards continues - this week he has dropped to 10th but, with less than £100,000 separating our top 11 teams, we've got the most open Golf Masters since the competition began four years ago.
Eleventh placed Deirdre Timlin had another good week, rising from 19th, and she is now exactly 18,065 places ahead of her husband Rory, whose Underdogs are still propping up the entire competition.
While Rory will hope for another miserable week for his Underdogs, Deirdre has loftier ambitions for The Blazers at the British Open (where double the regular prize money is on offer) and the Deposit Guaranty Classic in America. With so much prize money up for grabs this weekend we strongly suspect we'll see a very different leaderboard in Week 20 . . . and who knows, Tony Murnaghan may even win another fourball.
