Four years running Gerry Wickham has entered teams in the Golf Masters and not once did they even make an appearance on either the weekly or overall leaderboards. By Sunday evening last, though, he had a sneaky feeling that his luck had changed and, he confesses, for most of Monday he was in out of his office in the Bank of Ireland in Ardee asking his secretary was she SURE nobody had phoned with good Golf Masters' news.
It was with considerable relief then that he finally received confirmation that his Mornington Stars' line-up was indeed the top earning team in week eight of the competition. "I was always known as Carol and Phil Wickham's brother," he said of his two sisters, both former international golfers, "but they can be `Gerry Wickham's sisters' now." (Phil, incidentally, has already appeared on our overall leaderboard this year, under her married name of O'Gorman).
"I taught them everything they know," claimed our Bettystown manager. And they'd agree with that, would they? "No," he confessed, while wishing them both good luck for next Sunday's Hermitage Scratch Cup, where they will attempt to make it a truly memorable golfing week for the Wickham family.
Two shrewd moves in the transfer market last week helped clinch Gerry his fourball in Mount Juliet. Out went Loren Roberts and John Huston, neither of whom played at the Greater Greensboro Classic, and in came Jeff Maggert, who won u(pound sign) £21,000, and Scott Verplank, who was beaten in a play-off by Trevor Dodds, but still collected a Golf Masters' cheque for £80,000.
Bob Estes' third place finish added another £70,000 to the team's total which was already an impressive one after Thomas Bjorn's victory and Jose Maria Olazabal's share of second at the Spanish Open. Team captain and neighbour of Gerry in the townland of Mornington, Des Smyth, completed the team's scoring with another £1,500, bringing their total to £347,500.
George Leech of Enniscorthy, Co Wexford adopted a novel managerial approach last week by sending an all-Spanish line-up (bar Raymond Burns) into tournament at Barcelona. However, while Olazabal, Angel Cabrera, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Miguel Angel Martin, Seve Ballesteros and Ignacio Garrido's local knowledge helped return a combined score of 78 under par it was only enough to secure George 1,256th place this week. Good try George - there's a polo shirt in the post.
Making his first appearance on either of this year's leaderboards is the winner of the 1997 Golf Masters, Edward Staunton of Mullinahone, Co Tipperary. Ollie's Organisers were the week's third highest scoring team but, with overall earnings of £602,985 to date, they still have some way to go before they give their manager hope of retaining his Golf Masters' 'title'.
Kevin Barry's Augusta Special regained their place at the top of the overall leaderboard this week, after losing it to Brian Buttimer's Furyk's Furies in week seven, while Paul Sheehan's Pauly 8 leap from 35th to second.
And so to week nine's tournaments, the Italian Open at Castelconturbia in Milan, where nine Irish players will be in action (and possibly 10 if reserve Francis Howley gets a call up), and the Houston Open in Texas. Darren Clarke makes his return to the European Tour in Italy while Ronan Rafferty will be making his first Golf Masters' appearance of the year. Managers of Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington will hope for an improvement in their players' form after both missed the cut at the Cannes and Spanish Opens.
Finally, a word of advice to managers who may have lost their team numbers. If you can track down the exact date and time you registered the team (information that should be available on your phone bill) and provide the names of as many of your line-up as you can remember the people at the other end of the competition helpline should be able to trace your number.
