IT DIDN’T seem all that long ago when a Golf Masters manager sent us a photo of his son Mark, aged three and three quarters (and the three quarters, we were told, were vital), swinging a golf club bigger than himself. So impressed were we by this budding talent we published the photo.
“What age is Mark now,” we asked his father this week. “Well,” he said, “he’s about to get his Junior Cert results.”
Once we picked ourselves up from the floor and dusted ourselves down we wished 16-year-old Mark well, realising that his parents, Stillorgan residents Fionnuala and Tony Murnaghan, have been trying to win the Golf Masters since he was just about mastering the art of walking.
Well, Fionnuala, with her assistant Tony, finally did it in 2009 – but not, it should be noted, with the team she had in second place last week, rather with Tiger Economy which jumped, quite spectacularly, from ninth to first after the European Masters in Switzerland, winning Fionnuala our €20,000 first prize.
Frank Brennan, the man who led the competition going in to the final tournament, all but saw his hopes extinguished when two of the three players he had in action, Simon Khan and Jean-Francois Lucquin (the defending champion), missed the cut, leaving his fate resting firmly on the shoulders of Graeme Storm.
Storm’s share of 23rd in the end just wasn’t enough to keep Frank in the top three – but he still takes the prize for third place, €3,000, because “only one person per family resident at the same address can win one of the three overall prizes”. Yes, Fionnuala’s Artful Dodgers came third.
And who finished in between Fionnuala and Frank? “I can’t believe it,” said Wes Byrne, who only made his Golf Masters’ debut last year and already has €7,000 to show for his troubles.
He might be tempted to send Rory McIlroy a thank you card after he marked his transfer in to Tom’s Tigers last week by taking a share of seventh in Switzerland and winning Wes €59,625. Storm, Chris Wood and David Drysdale did enough between them to lift Wes from third to second, making it a Dublin one-two-three.
Maureen Sheehan also brought in McIlroy for the final week but her other transfer, Oliver Wilson (joint 23rd), didn’t do enough to make her a serious contender over the weekend – nor did Marcel Siem, who finished just inside the top 50.
Raphael Jacquelin and Michael Hoey, meanwhile, missed the cut. Maureen, then, remained in fifth place.
If only the contenders could have matched the week Bernard Dromey had, his ‘Beez Guduns’ winning an eye-watering €424,250 at the European Masters, more than enough to earn their manager our final fourball in Druids Heath and Nike polo shirt.
Bernard’s week 22 earnings were higher than the total winnings of our last-placed manager – through the entire competition. He is known to us only as Dara M, but considering he named his team ‘Hole in Seven!’ we’re guessing that he’s proud of the fact that they were the only line-up to win less than €400,000 in the 2009 Golf Masters. Take a bow, Dara.
Congratulations to all our winners, especially to our champion Fionnuala Murnaghan, her assistant Tony, and son Mark – aged 16 and three-quarters, or thereabouts.
