THE DUBIOUS among you might put it down to managers deciding it’s not worth their while making transfers, a bit of tweaking here and there a pointless exercise when the rest of the team is malfunctioning so badly. “Lipstick on a pig”, as the Americans might call it. We like to see it as loyalty, though, when managers persist with players who let them down a bagful, week in, week out.

Take David Howell. Despite winning just €3,500 so far in the 2009 Golf Masters he still has 443 faithful employers, putting him just outside the top 20 of our most popular players.

The man from Swindon has, it should be said, been plagued by injuries, a back problem the chief source of his difficulties in recent times.

But his managers would have been encouraged to hear how much he was looking forward to playing in the Wales Open last week, Howell relishing the prospect of being supported around the course by friends and club-mates from Broome Manor.

What happened?

After a steady par-packed opening 15 holes he twisted his ankle in a bunker on the 16th. He hobbled on to complete his round, but withdrew next morning.

Some reward for fidelity.

There must have been something in the Welsh air. Paul Lawrie (foot) and Pablo Martin (hand) also withdrew after round one, with Soren Kjeldsen and the Ryder Cup trio of Robert Karlsson (inner ear infection), Oliver Wilson (back) and Soren Hansen (back) having to pull out before swinging a club.

And to think this is a non-contact sport.