Monty keeps the Blackbirds at bay

Choosing to invest a third or more of your allotted Golf Masters' budget in one player is a risky business, one that certainly hasn't paid off for those who hired Mark O'Meara (cost £4.5 million, has earned £206,000 so far) or Fred Couples (cost £4.0 million, earned £151,000), for example. "So much for the old theory of `you get what you pay for'," managers of the pair might now ruefully observe.

Pat Corby (second and third overall) did lost of his shopping in the mid-price-range bracket, with Padraig Harrington (£2.7 million) the most expensive buy in either of his top two teams.

It's a strategy shared by most of his fellow top 10 managers, none of whom employ 11 of the 12 players who cost £4.0 million or more. The exception is our joint costliest player, Colin Montgomerie, who appears in three top 10 teams - David Maune's Cremorne 1, Roger Mullarkey's Twilight Zone and Tom Hayes' Dunmore Swingers.

Granted, £5.5 million isn't cheap, and having spent that amount on Montgomerie his managers were left with just £7.0 million to buy the other six members of their line-ups, but at the rate Monty's been going in recent weeks he's fast approaching bargain buy status.

You won't hear David complaining about the Scot's value for money since he brought him in to the team to replace David Duval three months ago. In fact, our leader must be beginning to think that his Golf Masters-winning hopes rest squarely on the shoulders of Monty, and Monty alone, if the efforts of his Cremorne 1 team-mates in week 23 are anything to go by.

All seven of the team were in action at either the Scandinavian Masters or the Buick Open, but four - Des Smyth, Chris DiMarco, Len Mattiace and Steve Pate - missed the cut, while the erstwhile high-earning Tim Herron and Retief Goosen both finished outside the top 50. So, the six contributed just £5,000 between them to the team kitty. Monty to the rescue. Again.

His victory at the Scandinavian Masters put him almost £200,000 clear of Goosen in the highest earners' list and, not for the first time, kept Pat Corby's Blackbirds at bay - Cremorne 1 outscored Blackbirds 7 by almost £15,000 and Blackbirds 10 by another £5,000, increasing their lead at the top to £79,953.

Once again Pat was indebted to Hal Sutton and Chris Perry for keeping him in touch with the leaders. The pair cost just £3.6 million combined but have already won over £1 million between them - on Sunday Sutton finished eighth at the Buick Open while Perry tied for 15th, thereby adding £64,500 to Blackbirds 7's account. Harrington's top 30 finish in Malmo earned the team £15,556, Ian Garbutt chipped in with another £7,250, but Goosen, Carlos Franco and Willie Wood let the side down by winning just another £3,500.

Roger Mullarkey's Twilight Zone made some progress in week 23, moving from fifth to fourth (swapping places with Paul Sheehan) thanks largely to the efforts of Montgomerie and Perry. Tom Hayes, though, was the top earning manager amongst our leading contenders - Montgomerie, Esteban Toledo and Sutton helped the Dunmore Swingers on their way to a team total of £188,000, lifting them from 12th to sixth overall. But if Roger and Tom want to become serious contenders for that £10,000 first prize, they could do with a spectacular team performance at the USPGA, the final opportunity of the season to win double the regular prize money.

Unfortunately for Mats Lanner's managers the Swede isn't in the field for the USPGA and therefore won't have a chance to make up for his mishap at the Scandinavian Masters when he was penalised four shots for accidentally carrying his two-year-old son's cut-down club in his bag in the third round.

"What can you do but laugh about it?" said Lanner after the penalty was imposed. Mmm, not so sure the 286 managers who paid £1.2 million for Lanner's services were chuckling so heartily when they heard the news.