Pigs Hollow is the not-altogether inviting name for the first hole at Greystones, a 180-yard par three off the back tee. Diarmaid Mac Gabhann stood up last Sunday in his second-round President's Prize match and said "Good afternoon" to opponent Stephen Kelly by holing out with a four-iron.
That opening shot must have come as a very rude awakening for Kelly, who understandably didn't "follow him in for a half", but if he'd been studying Mac Gabhann's form then maybe it wouldn't have been a total shock.
The 10-handicapper played for the Greystones team that reached the Barton Cup final last year and have already beaten local rivals Bray in this year's first round.
He also had a hole-in-one with a seven-iron at Greystones' 11th hole just six weeks ago. (He has also aced the fifth, and just needs the 15th and 17th to complete the set at his home club).
In a season-long football predictions competition that involved several hundred Central Bank colleagues, Mac Gabhann finished third to win just about enough money to pay for the drinks after his next hole-in-one.
He is a Golf Masters rookie, but went out against Kelly knowing Francesco Molinari, a member of his DAS 1 team, was leading the Italian Open and that Trevor Immelman was in with a shout at the Wachovia Championship.
By the time he'd advanced to the third round of the President's Prize with a win at the 15th, Molinari and Immelman were propelling Mac Gabhann to top place on our week five leaderboard.
There will surely be no shortage of people looking to accompany him in the prize fourball at Druid's Heath.
Even breathing the same air as Mac Gabhann has to be good for the system at present and he has risen to 238th on our overall leaderboard.
The new pacesetter in the race for our top prize of a20,000 is John O'Mahony from Cork. With five of the 10 permitted transfers already used on his Crookhaven 1 team, he may find it tough to hold on, although he has endeavoured to position himself to take advantage of the bonus money on offer in Europe over the next few weeks.
O'Mahony will be especially keen to see Angel Cabrera do better than last week when he missed the cut in Italy having started as favourite.
A push for a place in the Ryder Cup team by Paul Casey would also go down a treat.
O'Mahony has a lead of just a3,121 over John Fitzgerald from Dundalk, whose Karl-Heinz Kingscourt selection is similarly geared towards Europe and includes Cabrera and the defending champion at this week's British Masters, Thomas Bjorn.
Tim On Top 2 is no longer such an appropriate name for Stephen Conroy's leading team, which has now fallen to third. With no transfers remaining we expect it to be Tim In Mid-Table come the end of the season.
Maurice Prendergast's Baggott Street Players and Dennis Fitzgerald's Fane Bar Dundalk round out the top five, and with 16 teams within 100,000 of the lead we expect plenty of upheaval in the coming weeks.
golfmasters@irish-times.ie
