Sutton victory proves popular

Well, there might have been a distinct lack of Golf Masters' big guns in action at the Moroccan Open last weekend - Andrew Coltart…

Well, there might have been a distinct lack of Golf Masters' big guns in action at the Moroccan Open last weekend - Andrew Coltart, valued at £2.8 million, was our highest ranked player in the field - but at least most teams with a European bias picked up a few bob after a lean couple of weeks.

Jamie Spence's second European Tour title didn't, however, bring any joy to 99.5 per cent of our managers - he features in just 106 of our teams, the same number that include Thomas Levet, who took a share of second in Marrakesh.

Hal Sutton's Greater Greensboro victory, though, proved more popular, with 534 teams collecting £100,000 thanks to his efforts, including the 10 line-ups he was transferred into last week. Nice timing.

Sutton and Levet were the big winners for Joe Quinn's "Team Jessica" which earned £258,200 in week eight, the rest of the total contributed by Chris and Kenny Perry (who tied for fifth and eighth respectively) and Raphael Jacquelin (who just made it in to the top 50 in Morocco). Joe will be beating a path from Dunshaughlin, Co Meath to Tulfarris, Co Wicklow any day soon for his fourball and dinner-for-four prize.

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What can we say to ease the pain of John Quinn (Donabate, Dublin)? Probably not a lot. On the same weekend that Manchester United won yet another Premiership title his ABU 13 team just missed out on a fourball. Always look on the bright side of life John, there's a polo shirt in the post.

Noel Healy of Letterkenny, Co Donegal was another manager to benefit from Sutton's second win in a month - as Andrew Magee put it, "this isn't his first rodeo", in reference to Hal, not Noel. Noel went top of the overall leaderboard, where Des Heather, who has dropped to fourth, had been in residence since week five. Between them Sutton and Tiger Woods cost Noel £9.3 million of his £12.5 million budget but the "putting most of his eggs in one basket" gamble has paid off handsomely so far, with the pair winning EU Rangers almost £700,000, two thirds of their total to date. If he keeps both on board you'd have to imagine he's a fair chance of picking up a major along the way too, but he'll need his bargain buys - Mark Brooks, Roger Chapman and Paul Affleck - to keep chipping in with a few pounds. Only 21 weeks to hold on, though, Noel.

By the way, we've been inundated with one request to publish our Golf Masters' Dream Team (thanks Donal), the one we're banking on to deliver us our fifth successive victory in the competition (although, of course, we're not allowed pick up the winnings).

Hold your breath no more, here it is - for a budget of just £12.3 million we bought Sutton, Padraig Harrington, Stewart Cink, Jose Coceres, Roger Chapman, Kenny Perry and Jorge Berendt and, lo and behold, they've already won us a startling £1,419,458, putting us just over £376,000 clear of Noel Healy's total.

And we still have our four transfers left to make, which we'll use, as ever, to bring in players who've already done brilliantly and simply add their earnings to ours. It's a luxury, unfortunately, not afforded the rest of you.

You'll be relieved to hear there's a stronger field in this week's Spanish Open (Paul McGinley and Colin Montgomerie are amongst the entrants) while Sutton will be after his second successive win at the Houston Open - he will also be playing in week 10 and 11's tournaments, so happy days for his managers.