About a year ago we received an angry letter from a Golf Masters' manager who objected to us giving "publicity" to those fellow bosses of his who deliberately enter dodgy teams in the competition so they'll do badly and win humiliatingly, pitifully miserable amounts of money.
He argued these people should be shunned because they're ignoring the spirit of the Golf Masters, which, he claimed, is all about choosing players in form and winning as much money as possible. By publishing two or three bottom 10 "leaderboards" a year we were only encouraging them, he added.
"Absolutely," we agreed. "Chancers, the lot of them. Unless your sole Golf Masters' aim is the pursuit of excellence we'll have no truck with you," we vowed. Right, that's out of the way.
Paul Coughlan of Sligo, manager of the Also Rans? We salute you. Your team has won a magnificently measly £54,000 after 10 weeks of the 2001 competition, with only three of your representatives - Spike McRoy, Andrew McLardy and Mark Hensby - hitting five figures in the earning stakes. Superb.
So, back by popular demand, below is the first Golf Masters' bottom 10 of the year. When we say "popular demand" we refer to the three people who rang our helpline to hopefully inquire: "Am I last yet? - I made a few transfers last week (brought in Nick O'Hern and Paul Broadhurst) so I'm fairly confident."
Commiserations to all those managers who aspired to a bottom-10 position this week only for Stephen Leaney to finally turn up for Golf Masters' duty, taking a share of 17th at the French Open and winning a shocking £18,550 in the process. Salthill's Rory Timlin jnr? You're bang on course to succeed your father, Rory senior, who won "worst manager of the year" two years' running.
How To Transfer
If you have a team entered in the Golf Masters you can check its score and position, remind yourself of the line-up or change any of the information you left when entering by calling the numbers below at any time.
Transfers may be conducted each Tuesday and Wednesday during the competition with up to 10 transfers allowed per team. These 10 may be made all at one time or singly over the duration of the competition. It is important to remember, however, that you must at all times have seven players in your team, at least one of whom must be Irish, and you must stay within the £12.5 million budget.
If you wish to transfer you should have your team's PIN number ready before calling the competition number:
1550 92 49 05 (Republic of Ireland)
0906 604 0100 (Northern Ireland and Britain)
Calls cost 58p per minute in the Republic of Ireland and 60p per minute in Northern Ireland and Britain - all charges include VAT.
Competition Helpline: 01-2844060 between 10.0 am and 5.30 p.m. (Monday to Friday). Normal telephone charges apply to this number. Service provided by Phonovation Ltd.
