By and large, it has to be said, Tim Morris - our newly-crowned Golf Masters champion - had no complaints whatsoever about life in general on Monday afternoon. Apart, that is, from one heart-felt quibble he had with the folk who run this Golf Masters' business: "It really should come with a health warning," he told us.

Had the weekend been a bit stressful, then? "I'll tell you how stressful it was - the only time I was able to relax was when I watched the Ireland v Holland match. As a football fan I'd normally be up to 90 during something like that but when I switched over from the golf to the match a kind of calm came over me, it took my mind off the whole thing," said the only man in Ireland to find those 90 minutes (plus injury time) at Lansdowne Road soothing.

Mind you, after the fright Tim received when he looked at Sky Sports' teletext before the start of our final two tournaments it's little wonder that he needed all the distractions he could find from golfing matters. "Do you know what the headline said on their golf page? 'Langer Loss a Nightmare'," said the manager who was utterly dependant on Bernhard Langer going into the final week. As it turned out the headline referred to Sam Torrance's fears that Langer would miss out on automatic qualification for the Ryder Cup but Tim , of course, assumed he'd withdrawn from the BMW International with an injury.

Now? "Langer is a god," said Tim after the German's share of 16th at the BMW proved enough to hold off the challenge of Ray Charles. Before this the only competition the Civil Servant from Palmerstown, Dublin had ever won was when he successfully completed a slogan extolling the virtues of a brand of firelighters. "When I came home that evening my prize was at the front door - 20 bales of briquettes." His Golf Masters prize - a trip to the Ryder Cup for four and £5,000 in spending money - is, he says, a little more exciting.

"I am ecstatic, it's a fantasy. To see the likes of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing live will be a dream come through." So far Tim has selected one of his three guests (his brother-in-law, Gerry Lawn from Ballymena) but he wants to make it clear to his mother-in-law he will only be a spectator at The Belfry. "My wife Noreen rang her mother in Galway to tell her the good news but she picked up it up slightly wrongly, she thought I was playing in the Ryder Cup. 'Bring on Tiger Woods,' I said."

In the end Ray Charles came agonisingly close to catching Tim, losing out by just £19,230. He did, after all, have two transfers left going in to the final week but had mixed success with his newcomers - Sergio Garcia's share of seventh in Germany added £41,333 to the team account but Niclas Fasth could only finish outside the top 50 at the same tournament. Meanwhile at the Air Canada Championships Scott McCarron didn't do enough.

Ray, though, at least has the consolation of also winning a trip (for two) to the Ryder Cup while Packie Gallagher, who finished third and wins £1,500, was just relieved to have held off the challenge of Vincent Sheehan and Richard Power (fourballs to you both).

Hearty congratulations to Sligo's Paul Coughlan whose Also-Rans held off Rory Timlin's Underdogs to finish 18,872th and last in the competition - the two teams were the only line-ups to win less than £200,000 all year. Magnificent.

See you all next year.