We're beginning to think we undervalued "you know who" in the transfer stakes for the 2001 Golf Masters, considering how he's fared in his last two tournaments. In fact, we're beginning to think we should have slapped a £12.5 million price tag on him, thereby limiting his managers to his services, and his services alone. True, at £6.5 million Tiger Woods didn't come cheap but, then, you know what they say: you get what you pay for in this life. Three tournaments played, total earnings: £325,000. Whichever way you look at it an average of over £100,000 a tournament isn't to be sniffed at. Precisely 877 of our managers were hoping the Tiger bubble might burst on the final few holes at the Players' Championship, largely because they all had Vijay Singh, runner-up to "you know who", in their teams. However, the bubble, predictably enough, remained intact.
Because it wasn't mathematically possible at registration time to combine Woods and Singh in the same line-up none of the 877 landed themselves a Players' "one and two", although 19 managers had both Woods and third-placed Bernhard Langer in their teams and, so, were well pleased with their weekend's work. But, surprisingly, our weekly winner didn't come from that group. Step forward Paul Fox of Limerick city. "Wonderful! This is my third year in the competition so it looks like I'm finally getting the hang of it," he said when we rang to tell him he was Powerscourt, Co Wicklow-bound for his fourball and meal for four. Paul's team came away from Florida on Monday afternoon having won a tidy sum - £316,000 to be exact - with Woods, fourth-placed Jerry Kelly and Frank Lickliter, who tied for seventh, their star performers. Jorge Berendt contributed another £13,250 from his top 30 finish at the Sao Paulo Open, which proved to be a bit of a wash-out, literally and metaphorically, from a Golf Masters' point of view. Winner Darren Fichardt doesn't even possess a Golf Masters' card so his maiden PGA victory, in a tournament reduced to 54 holes after a thunderstorm struck, was of no consequence whatsoever to our managers.
In all, 2,559 of our entrants enthusiastically applauded as Tiger collected his winners' cheque - a total that included 29 managers who hired himself SINCE registration time. If you can't beat 'em join 'em, they evidently concluded, in deference to the Golf Masters' motto regarding the employment of our £6.5 million man.
A glut of "Michaels" has taken over at the top of our overall leaderboard this week, with only one non-Michael - Tom Hayes of Dublin - making it into the top four. Michael O'Hanlon of Clare has gone from third to first; Michael Delaney of Laois has leapt from fifth to second; and Michael Nolan of Offaly has soared from 24th to fourth with The Bell (Tommy) Tolles.
All three Michaels will now turn their attention to the BellSouth Classic, week five's only Golf Masters' tournament. We reckon, though, their eyes might be wandering in the direction of week six's sole tournament, the US Masters, not least because it is the first double-money tournament of the Golf Masters season. We assume "you know who" will win - if he does we'll very definitely conclude that, at £6.5 million, he's our runaway contender for "bargain buy of the year".
