"Somebody seems to come good for me every week," David Maune said to us a while back, and just recently that somebody has been Colin Montgomerie, more often than not. Once again the Scot was responsible for keeping David's Cremorne 1 on top of the overall leaderboard, after his victory in Loch Lomond on Saturday made up both for the absence of three of his team-mates from week 19's tournaments and for the other three winning just £40,250 between them. Since David transferred Montgomerie into the team in week 11 (swapping him for David Duval) he has won a staggering £580,125, over a third of Cremorne 1's earnings since then. Up until week 11 Montgomerie had won just £94,500, while Duval's purple patch in the same period brought £335,600 into the team's coffers.
Safe to say, then, that David timed his dealings on the transfer market to perfection, getting the best out of both Duval and Montgomerie so far. Tom Murray of Raheny wasn't so fortunate: he sacked Montgomerie just before he found his form and brought in Duval, just after he'd won £300,000 in three tournaments. He kept the American for five weeks - in which time he won £2,000 - sacked him, and then watched tearfully as he finished joint third at the Memorial and in the top 10 at the US Open. Pat Corby adopted a different strategy to David in the competition, resisting the temptation to invest almost half his budget in one leading player (and the rest on "bargain buys"); instead, he opted largely for a clutch of middle-ranked players on the price list. And, to date, that strategy is working just fine. This week Pat narrowed the gap, yet again, at the top, this time through Blackbirds 7, who were in third place last week. The team was the highest earning line-up in the top 25 (and the 87th most successful overall in week 19), winning £209,500, cutting Cremorne 1's lead to just under £70,000.
Carlos Franco's win at the Greater Milwaukee Open and Chris Perry's share of sixth place at the same tournament helped Blackbirds 7 overtake their cousins, Blackbirds 10, who won less than £100,000 at the weekend.
Bob Cooney was one of 837 managers to benefit from Montgomerie's success in Scotland, but his Cockerels' team was the only one to top the £300,000 earning mark in week 19. "He hasn't won again, has he," asked the disbelieving voice that answered Bob's phone at work. Yes, our Dublin manager has won his second fourball in 10 weeks - not that he knows anything about it just yet: he's currently taking it easy in a sunny spot somewhere in Europe. Jerry Kelly (third in America), Michael Jonzon (joint second in Loch Lomond) and Chris Perry were Bob's leading earners in week 19, helping him keep ahead of runner-up Shane Lee of Warrenpoint, who promised to wear his Golf Masters' polo shirt in his next amateur tournament, if we sent him one. We will. We'll also send one to Sean Doyle of Trim, Co Meath, who told us that he is still recovering from the shock of seeing his name on the leaderboard in week 17, for the first time in five years.
No sign as yet, though, of Captain Morgan who, to our knowledge, is the first one-eyed cat to enter the competition in its five-year history. Tragically Pip, Captain Morgan's feline friend, "threw himself in front of a car, in a fit of utter desperation" on noticing how badly his team was doing in the competition and is "now in the big cat-litter in the sky". RIP.
So, if you're a native of Bantry and you spot a one-eyed cat ambling along the road, decked out in a chic Golf Masters' polo shirt (possibly accompanied by its owner, Yoke Daams) you'll know its Captain Morgan. "He helps me by pressing the keys on my keyboard (picking players who might have a chance of doing well)," explained Yoke. (We're tempted to say 'it's not the same way we all go', but we won't).
We hope Captain Morgan has a successful British Open, where double the regular prize money is on offer: the winner plus three or four top 10 finishers would make it a purrfect weekend, we suppose.
