"Tiger won't keep going, he'll run in to trouble and he'll start losing tournaments," Thomas Bjorn said yesterday. Maybe his tongue was planted firmly in his cheek at the time of speaking but we here at Golf Masters' HQ reckon if we held our breath waiting for him to start losing tournaments we wouldn't live to see Christmas. After he broke our £1 million-earning barrier at the weekend we formally launched our "Price Tiger at £9.5 million next year" campaign, leaving just £3 million for the remaining six players on each team' campaign, one that has received frenzied support from the 16,000 managers who opted, oddly enough, NOT to employ Woods this year.
The near 4,000 who did can be heard murmuring "£9.5 million? Bah, cheap at the price". They almost have a point too. If you combined Woods with the six top earning £500,000-rated players this year - Fredrik Jacobson, Nick O'Hern, Kenny Perry, Roger Chapman, David Lynn and Niclas Fasth - you'd have a total of £2,847,878 by now (granted, you'd be breaking the rules because the line-up doesn't include an Irish player). Mind you, Woods isn't the only one of our big guns who is proving to be worth the gamble - the managers of Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson haven't much cause for complaint seeing as their men have topped the £700,000 earning mark this year, with a month still to go.
The bosses we do feel a bit sorry for are those who invested the bulk of their budgets in Jesper Parnevik, Justin Leonard and Paul Lawrie, our worst performing £4 million-plus rated players, all of whom have still to break the £300,000 barrier.
Top Earners
1 Tiger Woods (5.5) 1,193,467
2 Ernie Els (5.0) 940,550
3 Lee Westwood (5.0) 904,545
4 C Montgomerie (5.2) 898,208
5 Phil Mickelson (4.3) 764,861
6 Darren Clarke (3.3) 622,083
7 Loren Roberts (2.6) 594,250
8 Tom Lehman (3.4) 541,929
9 Vijay Singh (4.5) 532,156
10 Davis Love (4.8) 532,089
How to transfer
If you have a team entered in the Golf Masters you can check its score and position, remind yourself of the line-up or change any of the information you left when entering by calling the numbers below at any time.
Transfers may be conducted each Tuesday and Wednesday during the competition with up to four transfers allowed per team. These four may be made all at one time or singly over the duration of the competition. It is important to remember, however, that you must at all times have seven players in your team, at least one of whom must be Irish, and you must stay within the £12.5 million budget.
If you wish to transfer you should have your team's PIN number ready before calling the competition number.
1550 92 49 05 (Republic of Ireland)
0906 604 0100 (Northern Ireland and Britain)
Calls cost 58p per minute in the Republic of Ireland and 60p per minute in Northern Ireland and Britain - all charges include VAT.
Competition Helpline: 01-2844060 between 10.0 am and 5.30 pm (Monday to Friday). Normal telephone charges apply to this number. Service provided by Phonovation Ltd.
