Well now, maybe the 1997 Golf Masters isn't a two horse race after all. Once again our top two teams, managed by Edward Staunton and Kieran O'Toole, posted modest returns, this time from the European Masters and the Canadian Open but, unlike last week, one of their challengers took full advantage.
A month ago 17-year-old Matthew Ryan, from Castletroy, Co Limerick, was almost £250,000 behind Staunton but two shrewd moves in the transfer market transformed Tiger Tenacious 2 from also-rans into dark horses.
Out went Lee Westwood and Retief Goosen in time for the European Open, in came Per Ulrik Johansson and Jose Maria Olazabal - the Swede was the winner in Kildare, the Spaniard took a share of third and Ryan leapt from eighth to third on our overall leader-board.
There was still plenty of ground to make up though. Last week he was £111,200 off the lead and had only three players in action in the weekend's two tournaments. One, Darren Clarke, was also representing Woosnam's Wonders, another, Ignacio Garrido, was in the Chislers' line-up, which meant Tiger Tenacious (which doesn't feature Mr Woods) was relying on David Ogrin to help the team narrow the gap at the top.
The Texan obliged. A share of fourth place in Montreal, behind winner Steve Jones and runner-up Greg Norman, added £57,500 to the team account, reduced the gap between second and third by £98,500 and Staunton's lead by £56,500 - Ryan now trails Woosnam's Wonders by a less daunting £54,700.
It was a thoroughly miserable weekend for the Chislers who won just £16,000, falling £42,000 further behind Staunton. In terms of their battle with the leaders it didn't matter so much that Jim Furyk and David Carter missed the cut (both are also in Woosnam's Wonders), while Ignacio Garrido's cheque for £13,500 equalled Retief Goosen's prize money from the European Masters - the real disaster happened in the battle of the leading Irish players.
The Chislers' recent recruit, Padraig Harrington, picked a bad time to have the worst finish, 63rd, on the circuit since he turned professional, which won him just £1,500 - meanwhile, Staunton's Darren Clarke was picking up £43,500 for his share of sixth place.
Just to add to Kieran's woes Harrington is now taking a three-week break while Clarke is going all out, in the Lancome Trophy and the British Masters, to beat Colin Montgomerie to first place in the European Order of Merit - the Scot, who became the first Golf Masters player to break the one million pound earnings' barrier at the weekend, currently leads by just £2,433.
Our big mover this week was Dermot McHugh whose Ollie's Army jumped from 16th to sixth overall but the team with the biggest haul of the weekend was Sally Irvine's Seven, five of whom combined to win £256,667 at the European Masters - the winner Costantino Rocca, runner-up Robert Karlsson, Darren Clarke, Niclas Fasth (£24,667) and Thomas Gogele (£13,500).
"Sadly enough my husband David - who was sixth in week eight, has a computer programme running so he monitors the scores every week," said our fourball winner from Newtownards, explaining why she already knew how much her team had won when we phoned her with the good news.
"I'm not really the golfer in the family, my husband is, so he's taken a lot of stick with me finishing in the top 40 last year . . . and of course winning this now. I told him I'd get a polo shirt if I won and he said, `well I'd like one too' so I said I'd ask if there was any chance." Oh, alright then.
All Golf Masters' eyes will be on St Nom la Breteche this weekend, the venue for the Lancome Trophy, week 29's only tournament. Matthew Ryan will be depending on Per-Ulrik Johansson and Sam Torrance to help Tiger Tenacious narrow that gap further.
