We assume it was because the Benson and Hedges International was a bonus tournament that a sizeable percentage of our managers went transfer crazy last week. Or, perhaps, it was all down to the startling realisation amongst those statistic-minded managers of ours that after week 11 we'd have completed 42 per cent of our 2001 Golf Masters' schedule - 20 tournaments, to be exact.
Consequently, we assume again, they concluded that maybe it was time to hire a few players who might win them a few bob and lift their misfiring line-ups out of that bit of the overall leaderboard where the sun don't shine.
Some of the transfer market manoeuvres were understandable enough - for example, 102 managers brought in Tiger Woods in time for his return to action at the Byron Nelson Classic, where he had to settle for a miserly share of third place. But others made no sense at all (not least the firing of Tiger by four bosses just as he was about to resume collecting bulky Golf Masters cheques).
One of our Dublin managers, Louis Scully, gave us the biggest giggle of all, though, when we sat down to study the transfer data after the lines were closed. Imagine hiring a player who hadn't won in 131 starts on the PGA Tour, just in time for a tournament that featured five of the top seven players in the world (including Tiger)?
"Louis, Louis, Louis - what were you thinking of," we asked ourselves, shaking our heads in exasperation at the foolish things some Golf Masters managers do. (In fairness, four managers had the good sense to sack this fella at the same time Louis was hiring him).
Louis, Louis, Louis? How did you know Robert Damron was about to earn more from one tournament than he'd won in any of his four full seasons on the USPGA Tour by winning the Byron Nelson Classic, beating Scott Verplank in a play-off? And, infinitely more importantly, what inspired you to christen your Damron-led team Sheep Dip?
And what of the eight managers who transferred Paul McGinley into their teams in time for the Benson and Hedges International? An absurd move, we reckoned, because in all eight cases McGinley replaced either Darren Clarke or Padraig Harrington as the Irish player in the manager's line-up, just as both big guns were quite evidently about to fire on all cylinders. Final scores from the Belfry? McGinley finished joint second, with Harrington settling for a share of 19th and Clarke further back in a group of eight who carved up 27th place.
Angel Cabrera? Well, after he missed the cut in week 10's French Open, who could blame 11 of his managers for dumping him - and who couldn't resist chuckling at the four who hired him for the Benson and Hedges? Cabrera? Joint second with McGinley. Who's not laughing any more? Us.
Packie Gallagher of Kincasslagh, Co Donegal, takes this week's fourball in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, after Keadue Rovers (the other Packie's former team - Mr Bonner, to you and me) cleaned up with a mammoth cheque for £439,236 from the weekend's tournaments. Stenson, McGinley and Woods were Packie's top earners, but Raphael Jacquelin, Brett Rumford, Robert Coles and Elliot Boult didn't let the side down: they won another £115,069 between them. Neale Webb rocketed from 139th to first overall thanks chiefly to the efforts of Stenson, McGinley, Woods and Desvonde Botes, fifth at the Belfry. If Neale's men can do more of the same at the Deutsche Bank Open (TPC of Europe) and the Colonial we may well see him in the very same spot next week.
