IF WEEK six of the Golf Masters was a bit of wash-out for your team(s) the only consolation we can offer is that you were far from alone, as the number-crunching showed after the Mallorca and Texas Opens: 782 of our teams failed to win a single euro, 620 collected just €500 and only 72 of our 250 players lodged any earnings at all in their managers’ accounts.
We can but hope these figures bring some comfort to the crestfallen manager who sent us this email after the weekend’s tournaments: “I was fully aware that having only Gary Murphy and Vaughn Taylor in action this week was a big risk. Even after Murphy had a great first day I refused to take anything for granted, but I’ll admit that after seven holes on Friday, when he was in a tie for third, I chuckled as I noticed that he was a full nine strokes clear of the cut line. You know what happened next? He dropped a whopping 10 strokes on the last 11 holes. Is this my punishment for getting ahead of myself? I feel largely responsible for his decline, and feel I may have ruined the best chance he’ll ever have to win on tour. Yours, John O’Connor.”
True enough John, Murphy, the ninth most-hired player in the competition (he’s in 738 teams), was in fine fettle until he reached the eighth hole in the second round in Mallorca. A double-bogey there, followed by another double-bogey at the 11th, a triple-bogey at the 12th, and three more dropped shots on the last two holes and, well, he missed the cut by a single shot. At least John still had Taylor in action over in San Antonio, the Virginian comfortably making the cut . . . well, by two strokes. A third round 67, though, hinted at the possibility of a big finish and a meaty cheque for our ill-fated manager. How’d he fare on Sunday? He had his worst round of the tournament, a 74, and ended up tying for a lowly enough 34th.
At this point John should look away. With the week six tournaments looming Séamus Cahill was in precisely the same position, with just two of his Black and Amber line-up due to play in Mallorca and Texas. He, though, leapt in to the transfer market, ridding himself of five players who were taking the week off and replacing them with: Peter Hanson (the winner in Spain), Fredrik Jacobson (runner-up in Texas), Chris Wood (tied for fifth in Spain), Robert-Jan Derksen and Damien McGrane, who had top 30 and 50 finishes, respectively, at the Mallorca Open. And the only two players he kept on, Steve Flesch and Sam Hutsby, won €46,500 between them. If Séamus had contented himself with Steve and Sam’s contributions he would have tied for 1,852nd on our weekly leaderboard. Instead, having wielded the axe, he’ll have to settle for first, a fourball in Druids Heath and a Nike polo shirt.
Donal Coleman’s Wayward Lads, last week’s overall leaders, won €290,750 less than Black and Amber in week six, in other words: zilch. They, then, drop to sixth, while former leader Robert Webster regains top spot, his new recruits, Ernie Els and Bo Van Pelt, bringing in almost €75,000 between them, Flesch and McGrane completing a more than satisfactory weekend’s work for Webbie’s Weekly Winners. The hiring of Els also helped Paul McGinty’s cause, his share of third in Texas, along with Jacobsen’s second place, lifting Sadler’s Woods from 23rd to second.
John? We wish you much, much better luck at this week’s PGA Championship (a bonus tournament) and the Byron Nelson.
