Changing faces reach a million

Week nine, and you'll never guess what - we have a new overall leader, our ninth since the competition got under way in early March. If our memory serves us right this is the first time in Golf Masters' history that `no, no, I insist - after you' has been the strategy adopted by our leading challengers.

Whether or not our new leader David Randall and his Silky Seven team buck the trend and hold on to top spot next week remains to be seen, but he and second-placed William Brennan have at least achieved the distinction of being the first managers to break the £1 million earning mark this year.

At the same stage of last year's competition - and with the same number of tournaments played (15) - Kevin Barry's Augusta Special had won £1,284,263, just over £233,000 ahead of David Randall's current total.

Kevin, a native of Corbally, Limerick (whose father Tom won a four-ball three weeks ago), remained in contention close to the end, eventually finishing 10th overall, so we note with interest that he's climbing quietly up the leader-board as we speak, with teams in 39th and 47th places. Who knows, perhaps he's timing his run a little better this year.

Bob Cooney of Finglas in Dublin has a bit of work to do before he can challenge David Randall and the rest of the leading managers - his `B Team' is over £285,000 adrift of the current top score but no one matched his line-up's total last weekend when they won £292,786 at the Italian and Houston Opens.

While Padraig Harrington's 3,506 managers were disappointed to see him beaten to the Italian Open title by Dean Robertson, who only features in 85 teams, it made little difference to Bob Cooney because he had both men in his line-up. He also had Scott Hoch and Bradley Hughes (who took a share of 10th in Houston) and two top 20 finishers in Turin, Gary Orr and Craig Hainline.

So, Bob wins a four-ball and a gorgeous polo shirt. ("Thanks very much, but it'll take more than a polo shirt to make me look dapper," he admitted). Just to confirm, this week's French Open and Compaq Classic of New Orleans BOTH count in the competition. The French Open wasn't listed in the early schedules that appeared in the paper at registration time because the organisers had yet to confirm which course would be used for the tournament, so there was a doubt about whether it would go ahead.

However, once Golf du Medoc in Bordeaux was confirmed as the venue the tournament was added to the schedule near registration time, so those of you with teams with a European bias can rest easy - you should earn a few Golf Masters' pounds this weekend.

Similarly the Compaq Classic Will count in week 10 as well. Compaq are the new sponsors for what was known as the Freeport-McDermott Classic up until last year, a regular on the Golf Masters' schedule.

Steve Elkington, of course, won't be in action in New Orleans after he received confirmation that he has contracted viral meningitis for the second time in a year. Elkington had to withdraw from the Houston Open after the third round when he was just five strokes behind the then tournament leader Hal Sutton. All we can offer to his 204 managers (five of whom hired him just in time for Houston) is heartfelt commiserations and £1,500 for making the cut. Needless to say, the Australian will be out of action for at least a few weeks.

We hope for his sake that James Loughnane doesn't have Elkington in any of his teams because it would appear that our Killarney manager has already had his fair share of bad luck this year. "There must be some special prize for consistency in the Players Championship tournament. In last year's event I had Len Mattiace on my team when he managed to take eight at the 17th while he was in contention for top honours."

This year Payne Stewart, who I have on one of my teams, obliged by also taking eight at the 17th when in the shake-up. Both were even in the water twice, which I suppose is a prerequisite for taking an eight. There is obviously a special talent required for knowing your players that well." A special prize for a special talent - a polo shirt's in the post James.