Mark O'Meara is 41 and to most of us that is not a particularly old and wrinkly age. However, from the vantage point of a child, it most certainly is. In fact, most children would be surprised if a 41-year-old could even walk the length of a golf course, never mind win a major tournament on one.

We therefore noted, with some interest, that the combined ages of the three managers who sacked O'Meara on the eve of the US Masters was 38. Was there, we wondered, a hint of ageism in their actions?

Well, we tried to speak to one of the culprits, Sean Walsh, but he was unavailable for comment, busy playing a round of golf at Proudstown, Co Meath. This Navan manager, age 12 and 11 twelfths (he'll be 13 on May 2nd), did some serious rejigging of his team last week to ensure that he had that youngster Tiger Woods (age 22 and a bit) in his line-up for the Masters. This involved giving the auld fella O'Meara his cards.

We spoke to Sean's mother, though, and broke the bad news to her. Actually, she knew it already. "He told me," she sighed. "He has me moidered with it." And what about culprit number two? Cormac Reilly, also of Navan. Also 12. Surely they don't know each other? "Oh yes, Sean is his little friend across the road," revealed Cormac's mother. He'd a bit of bad luck in the Masters. "Mmm, he was telling me that."

Cormac was at basketball training when we rang but we learnt that he replaced the ancient O'Meara with Jose Maria Olazabal, who, at 32, is pushing on a bit, in his team.

And, finally, there was 14-year-old Brian Darcy of Rathmichael in Dublin, who removed O'Meara from his Rusty's Racers' team and hired Lee Westwood (age 24 and 11 twelfths - he'll be 25 on April 24th).

"I picked O'Meara at the beginning because I thought he'd win something. But he didn't. And then Lee Westwood won the Freeport-McDermott Classic so I thought he'd do well in the Masters. But he didn't," said Brian. "I was very disappointed."

Polo shirts all round.