GOLF:AS WE mentioned last week, it's more than a little useful to be familiar with the playing plans of the members of your team. The schedule of the likes of Tiger Woods can often be front page news, never mind the headline in the sports section, so he's easy enough to keep track of. For the lesser known players, though, it can be trickier.

This isn’t as much a problem as it was from 1995, when we first ran our Fantasy Golf competition, until last year, when managers were restricted to just 10 transfers through the entire campaign. A mis-timed switch then could have had mildly cataclysmic consequences for a team’s prospects, not least if you used up your final transfer to bring in a player who then announced he was out for the season.

While there’s still nothing to prevent managers from making transfers decisions that will quite possibly ruin their weekends – eg deciding Michael Hoey was unlikely to do much at the Madeira Open, firing him and replacing him with a fella you thought was playing at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, but wasn’t – at least now you have two transfers every week (and a third for bonus tournaments), so there’s always a chance to redeem yourself.

When it comes to tracking the plans of your players, Twitter can be an excellent source of information.

Google “golfers” and “twitter” and you’ll be led to updates from a whole host of players, Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy among the most prolific of twitterers. If they feel a twinge in their left elbow they’ll let you know about it and you’ll be the first to know if they’ve decided to take the week off.

Poulter’s tweets are the stuff of legend by now. As part of his World Matchplay Championship triumph celebrations, he offered a voucher to his fans that entitled them to a free “Oddono’s Gelati” ice-cream . . . usable only in Canada, the UK, the US and Costa Rica. Grr.