Buick Classic saves the day

You could say week 15 of the 1998 Golf Masters proved to be something of a damp squib. The stats certainly suggest so anyway: 184 players and 3,695 of our teams scored nothing at the weekend, with another 6,286 teams winning under £5,000. Little wonder then that the average weekly score was just £20,249 which, we're reasonably confident, is a record low for the competition.

Our sympathy goes out to the managers of Andrew Sherborne (all 1,071 of you) and Barry Lane (283) who saw the European Grand Prix declared null and void, having been washed away by torrential rain, when their two players were sharing the lead.

If the tournament was rescheduled for some time before September 29th of this year it would still have counted in the competition, but that possibility was ruled out by the tournament director, Mike Stewart, on Sunday. For a time it looked like week 15 would be a complete wash-out with the Buick Classic in New York also hit by unseasonable weather, but it survived after being reduced to 54 holes.

Twenty-seven players withdrew, however, after the first round, including Ireland's Richard Coughlan, while a bad back prevented Ernie Els from even starting the tournament he has won for the past two years.

And if all that wasn't enough a player who hasn't even made it on to the list of Golf Masters' players, JP Hayes, beat Jim Furyk in a play-off to record the first victory of his PGA Tour career.

Despite his team captain's misfortune, Michael Delaney of Portlaoise still saw the five members of his Furyk Fury line-up, who were in action at the Buick Classic, win an impressive £208,813 and win HIM a fourball in Mount Juliet. Four of the five finished in the top 10 - Furyk, Kevin Sutherland, Steve Lowery and Chris Perry - with Darren Clarke picking up another £13,813 for his share of 24th place.

Kevin Barry stretched his lead over Tony and Brian Murnaghan at the top of the overall leaderboard by £13,813 (to £15,790), precisely the amount won by Paul Azinger at the Buick Classic, the first time he has completed a tournament since his fifth-place finish at the US Masters in week six.

The biggest climbers of the week were Peter Maher's Masters 4, up from 10th to third, Paul Mulcahy (joint 11th on the weekly leaderboard), up from 36th to eighth, Mark Wilkinson, who jumped from 22nd to ninth, and Niall Murray, whose Seven-Up line-up rose 18 places to 10th. This week there's a chance for everyone to double their regular prize money at the US Open, with £200,000 alone on offer to the winner of the season's second Major. While all eyes will be on the Olympic Club in San Francisco, there's also a Golf Masters' tournament taking place at the Santo da Serra Golf Club, the Madeira Island Open. Managers of Francis Howley, who has been playing most of his golf on the European Challenge Tour recently, will be pleased to know he is in the field in Madeira, along with fellow Irishman Cameron Clark.

Meanwhile John Arrigan of Portlaoise dropped us a line to find out whether it is a record for someone to have had eight tournament winners in the first 14 weeks of the competition (Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Andrew Coltart, John Cook, Colin Montgomerie, Tiger Woods, Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke) but not yet to have won a polo shirt. We think it probably is, John. And then there's Angus Murray . . . (okay John, we'll send you one) . . . of Dublin, yet another of our managers who was full of optimism back in February and March when he entered his 12 teams in the competition. But, since then, nothing.

The final straw, Angus told us, came in week 12 when he had the winners of the PGA Championship and the Colonial, Colin Montgomerie and Tom Watson, respectively, and still finished £50,000 short of a place on the weekly leaderboard. And there he was checking the bus timetable for Kilkenny. "My wife feels this is a sad and pathetic way of trying to win a polo shirt and get my name in black and white, but I'm sure you can prove her wrong," he wrote. Well . . . emmm . . . she has a point Angus . . . mmm . . . not sure . . . mmmm . . . oh, alright then.