Nothing warms the cockles of our Golf Masters' hearts more than bringing glad tidings to those managers who have long since given up on ever seeing their names in leaderboard lights. In fact, in some cases, they've long since given up on ever seeing any of their players make the cut.
Take Oliver O'Sullivan, for example. "You know, every week I look at the scores in the paper and it never ceases to amaze me how badly my teams do," he said. Now, between ourselves, if we'd spoken to Oliver this time last week, while not wanting to be rude, we might have said: "what do you expect when you employ Andrew Oldcorn AND Nick Faldo (combined earnings in week 12: £750)?"
The same Andrew Oldcorn AND Nick Faldo who won £255,000 between them in week 13? Yes, the very ones. So, Oliver O'Sullivan (of Castlepollard, Co Westmeath) - if you look down a bit, right a bit on this page not only will you see your name in leaderboard lights, you'll see it sitting extremely prettily on TOP of the weekly leaderboard, courtesy of your `Seven Wonders'.
As well as having the first, third and joint fourth (Michael Campbell) placed players at the Volvo PGA Championship (a bonus tournament) Oliver also picked up another £61,667 for Phil Mickelson's share of third at the Kemper Open. Add in Frank Nobilo's cheque for £21,000 at the same tournament and Richie Coughlan's £500 for missing the cut and you have a wondrous total of £420,667 for one week's work. All of which means `Seven Wonders' now rocket to 2,187th on the overall leaderboard.
Funnily enough, there is a striking similarity between Oldcorn's playing career and Oliver's managerial career - both were largely uneventful and not enormously successful until last week but then, voila: suddenly Oldcorn's thinking about the Ryder Cup and Oliver's thinking about Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, (where he and three pals will soon be heading for a fourball and a feast for four).
Oldcorn, who can now be regarded as a snip at £500,000, appears in a mere 881 teams, but that's still nearly 500 more than employ Angel Cabrera, runner-up at Wentworth. Thirteen teams feature both men while 30 had both Oldcorn and Kemper Open winner Frank Lickliter . . . but not one managed to outscore Oliver.
Neale Webb retained the lead for the third successive week, despite tying for 11,437th on the weekly leaderboard. Neale and Tiger Wood's other 2,318 managers will be more than a little overjoyed to hear that he's back in action this week at the Memorial while the employers of our joint second most expensive player, Lee Westwood, will be relieved to hear that he's abandoned plans to take a year off golf (an idea he briefly contemplated after missing the cut in Wentworth) and is in the field for the British Masters, another bonus tournament.
Finally, a word of consolation to Brendan Gallagher who contacted us this week to share his Golf Masters' woes ("I watch most of the tournaments on television - the problem is, most of my players watch most of the tournaments on television too. I never come anywhere."). Brendan? Before week 13 Oliver O'Sullivan knew exactly what you meant.
