At last, we have a team not afraid to take up the running in the 2001 Golf Masters. Before last week Tomas Treacy, Finbarr Lyons, Diarmaid Redden, Michael O'Hanlon and Seamus Parle experienced life at the top of the overall leaderboard for no more than seven days, before their line-ups decided they preferred the company of the chasing pack, rather than the loneliness of the long-distance leader. Michael Delaney's Sally's Girl is a different animal - a horse, to be precise. "A lovely little horse that won money for me," as our Portlaoise manager explained. A horse comfortable leading from the front and one that's confident it has the pace to last the distance. (Well, semi-confident).
Yes, Sally's Girl is the first team to retain top spot on the overall leaderboard this year after reaching the summit for the first time last week. Having finely tuned his starting line-up, by using four of his 10 transfers, Michael has a lead of almost £80,000, with Bernhard Langer's share of third (£58,750) at the Worldcom Classic helping him beat off the challenge of Fionnuala McMahon in week seven.
So Michael, you who led the competition in week 19 last year, are you going to hang on until September and win the whole thing? "By God I am," he vowed, before his optimism evaporated and reality got the better of him. "But it's a long haul, there's a long way to go and an awful lot of transfers to be made - but wouldn't I love to get to the Ryder Cup."
He would too, not least because it would help the Leinster GAA Council secretary (for he is Michael) unwind a week after the All-Ireland football final, the period before which he fields an average of 4,862 telephone calls a minute from people looking for tickets. Last year, when Michael won his first Golf Masters' weekly prize, having narrowly missed out on countless occasions before, we had to convince the nice man who answered the telephone we had something for Michael (i.e. a four-ball), and weren't ringing on the off-chance he had something for us (i.e. tickets for the Leinster final). So, well done Michael Delaney. Now, on to our weekly prize winner. Ring, ring: "Hello Michael Delaney!" "Don't tell me I hit the jackpot again," he said. "You certainly did, this time with Hawaiian Sam," we said back. Yes, the very same Michael Delaney tops both our leaderboards this week, overall and weekly. Surely this man is the Tiger Woods of Golf Masters-land.
In week 13 of last year's competition he told us he'd been looking forward to our call for five years, which is how long he had waited for his first weekly triumph. Well, now he's got the hang of it and he'll be off to Powerscourt, Co Wicklow with three pals before you can say: "We'll swap you a four-ball for two Leinster final tickets." So, what's his secret? "I made three transfers before the weekend's tournaments. I was watching Sky on Wednesday and they tipped Ian Poulter as a good outside bet for the Moroccan Open so I brought him in, along with Robert Karlsson and Mark Calcavecchia." Poulter won the Moroccan Open, Karlsson finished 12th and Calcavecchia chipped in with another £7,750 by tying for 38th at the Worldcom Classic. Add in Vijay Singh's £58,750, Paul McGinley's £36,750, Len Mattiace's £24,667 and John Cook's £11,250 and you have yourself a four-ball and a perfect Golf Masters' week. Can he match it at the Spanish and Houston Opens? We, frankly, are unwilling to bet against him.
