GOLF:FAR BE it for us to make assumptions about the intentions of Stephen, Alan, Eugene, Jody, David, another David, Kevin, Eoin and Brian – the nine managers whose teams are on zero points after 10 weeks. Or, indeed, Aidan, whose Power House line-up could do with some recharging – they have a total of minus six points.

It could well be they’ve all just been a touch unlucky so far, but there’s also a small possibility they are among that unique group of managers who actually aim to win as few points as possible in the hope they’ll finish last.

With that in mind, having looked at the field for the US Open, we have some bad news: it’s difficult to see how these underachievers-and- proud-of-it can avoid winning a few points in week 11.

Yes, they could have Tiger Woods from group two in their teams, Chris Wood or Ross Fisher from four, Vijay Singh from six and Richard Finch or Sean O’Hair from seven, thereby guaranteeing zero points from those selections, as none is in the field. There are plenty of non-starters, too, in groups eight, nine and 10, so that’s good.

But what about groups one, three and five? How can you avoid winning points when every player in each of those groups is in the field? The only hope, really, is that one of three things happens: (1) Their group one, three and five players sleep in and miss their tee-times, and so their Open ends before it begins; (2) They miss the cut, ensuring some valuable minus points; or (3) Best of all, at least one of the players is disqualified. In a regular tournament the “reward” for disqualification is -50 points, in a bonus tournament it goes up (down?) to -75.

Three disqualifications, then, and Stephen, Alan, Eugene, Jody, David, the other David, Kevin, Eoin, Brian and Aidan would collect a quite spectacular -225 points, the stuff of their dreams, you’d imagine.

The rest of you, we assume, would quite like to avoid that fate, and, with 52 of our 76 players in the field, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll pick up points rather than lose them.