Isn't this Golf Masters' game funny all the same? Last week Jose Maria Olazabal warned Sam Torrance that he wouldn't be going out of his way to qualify automatically for the Ryder Cup. On hearing this news, four of his managers duly sacked him, presumably assuming he wouldn't be going out of his way to win Golf Masters' tournaments between now and September.
Naturally enough, Olazabal proceeded to claim his 19th European Tour title at last weekend's French Open, so even if he isn't too fussy about making it to the Belfry in September, he's done his current 288 managers' chances of claiming our prize of a trip to . . . the Belfry in September . . . no harm at all.
Indeed, they might even send the Spaniard a postcard from hospitality in the International Pavilion at the Ryder Cup (don't thank us, all part of the prize) if he creates a bit of European Tour history at the Belfry this week by becoming the first golfer to win the International Open in two successive years.
And what of David Toms, our 197th most popular player, out of a 237-strong list? Back at registration time a mere 108 managers included him in their line-ups but another 29 hired him since then, after he won just over £140,000 in the first nine weeks of the competition - the highlight his share of 12th at the Players' Championship. And before you could say "a Louisiana native hasn't won on home soil since the PGA Tour dropped in to New Orleans 53 years ago", Toms - a Louisiana native - won the New Orleans Classic.
He did so by overcoming a six-shot deficit going into the final round, with Phil Mickelson's 1,168 managers none too impressed with their man chucking away the three-shot lead he held after the third round. "It was a pathetic round of golf," he said of his final round 72, to which his employers no doubt replied: "no arguments here".
Still, he netted them a not-too-bad £80,000 for his runnersup spot, which, when you add it to Toms's £100,000 Golf Masters' cheque, accounts for the bulk of the winnings lodged in Michael Keegan's account after week 10 - yes, Michael had both men in his BBC4 line-up.
But is he happy? Very probably, especially when you add in Frank Lickliter's £38,000 (for his share of eighth in New Orleans), Greg Chalmers' £27,429 and J L Lewis's £13,250 from the same tournament - and Brett Rumford's £18,550 pickings from the French Open. Enjoy your fourball in Powerscourt, Michael.
BBC4 has, consequently, leapt from the nether regions of our overall leaderboard up to 71st, giving Michael gloating rights over the managers of the 18,801 teams below him. Seamus Parle, meanwhile, has regained first place thanks primarily to Chris Smith and Jerry Kelly's efforts in New Orleans where they won £72,500 between them.
Our biggest `riser' of the week, though, is William Brennan's GJ1 which was our 20th highest earning team of the week, enough to lift them to seventh overall - like BBC4, GJ1 benefited from Toms's and Mickelson's New Orleans' one-two.
So, the big question in week 11 is can the Golf Masters' most popular player, Padraig Harrington, expunge the memory of 12 months ago when his managers missed out on a cheque of £150,000 when he was disqualified from the International Open (which, again, is a bonus tournament). Meanwhile over at the Byron Nelson Classic Tiger Woods is back in action.
