Early pacesetters feeling the pressure

Perhaps it was last week's European track and field championships in Gothenburg that put the notion in our minds, but in many ways the possible strategies for Golf Masters resemble the choices open to the long-distance runner.

You can go for broke from the start, use up all your transfers early to aim for a substantial lead on the pack and then hope to be able to hold on as your strength inevitably wanes near the end.

You can hang out in midfield, keep an eye on what's going on up front and then hope to come late with a flurry of transfers for the closing tournaments.

The middle ground is perhaps the most popular. You can try to stay in or around the business end of affairs more or less from the start, use your transfers in a fairly even fashion and then pick your moment for one, well-timed kick for the line.

The go-for-broke strategy seems to be the least successful for Golf Masters managers. There are simply too many variables when trying to predict the schedules and performances of top players.

Loss of form, injury, births, marriages, deaths and pure whim can all affect things, and with no transfers in hand a manager is vulnerable to attack from behind.

Only one of the current top 10 tried to make all the running this season. Michael Keegan used his final two transfers to recruit Gary Orr and Miguel Angel Jimenez to his Par Excellence selection as they hit the front way back in week nine.

They're still hanging in there but dropped three places to ninth this week. The lactic acid must be really hurting.

JJ Comerford has gone for the opposite approach with Village People 1. He made his first three changes last week and three more this week to move into medal contention with a climb of four places to sixth.

Mind you, he didn't get much help at The International from new recruits Camilo Villegas, Phil Mickelson and JJ Henry and will be hoping for better than a combined haul of 2,500 from that trio over the next fortnight.

To varying degrees our top three have opted for the steady-paced approach, but the oxygen of transfers is getting thin and the legs are beginning to hurt.

Kieran Diviney used two of his remaining three changes this week and took over top spot for the first time with minimal help from Henry and a bit more (33,000) from Brett Quigley.

John Belton looks reasonably comfortable out in lane two with Vacuums and declined to use either of his remaining two transfers.

Paul Dowling took an unlucky stumble from first to third when he brought in Paul McGinley (16,100 at the Dutch Open) for Padraig Harrington.

With McGinley now out of the field for the USPGA, Dowling will presumably have already used his final transfer to reverse that deal.

With almost 250,000 separating first from 10th, prospects of ultimate victory might seem bleak for those lower down but it's double money this week and bonus money for the final fortnight.

David Good (13th with Petit Marvellous) will be hoping more than most that the Tiger can make it major number 12 at Medinah.