Ray Charles looks good for record

We don't want to fluster you, especially if you have a carefully planned, sure-fire, castiron, fail-safe `it's not a question of whether I win, it's a matter of by how much' strategy for the 2001 Golf Masters (one that doesn't appear to be working just yet, but will any day now), but we only have 12 weeks and 20 tournaments to go (see right for list).

So, if your leading line-up is still attempting to break the £500,000 earnings' mark it might be time for it to make a move in an upwards direction on that leaderboard if you're to have any hope of winning that rather agreeable trip to the Ryder Cup in September.

Last year's winning total was Colin Rutherford's £3,873,883 (an average of £133,500-a-week) but we have five fewer tournaments this time around so you would have thought a lower total would clinch first place. But, at the rate most of our main contenders are winning Golf Masters' pounds, Colin's total could yet be topped.

Our new overall leader, Ray Charles of Dunmore, Co Galway, has so far averaged prize money of £150,000 for each of our 15 weeks to date and if his Castle Street 1 team maintains that pace they would comfortably break the £4 million barrier by week 27. But, as Ray would tell you, `if' is a colossal word in the vocabulary of your average Golf Masters' manager.

There were, though, mixed fortunes for our leading managers in week 15, with Seamus Parle suffering more than most - `Never Forget Eric (Cantona)' won him just £5,000, which put them in joint 17,643th on the weekly leaderboard and down from sixth to 15th on the overall list. `Mon Dieu,' was very probably Seamus's reaction to his week 15 woes.

No such trouble for our top four, Ray Charles, John Barron (last week's leader), Paul Murray and Noel Fitzmorris, all of whom topped the £100,000 mark, while Robert Smyth rose from 19th to seventh (460th on the weekly leaderboard) and Fergal Moran did even better, jumping from 35th to 14th after Chaps United came home with a cheque for £170,000.

Nobody, though, could match the total of Cormac O'Sullivan (Hollywood, Co Wicklow) in week 15 and nobody was more surprised than . . . Cormac O'Sullivan. "I entered for the first time last year and finished in around 14,000th place. I entered two teams this year but didn't expect to do much better - when you look at the scores some of those managers get, they're right sharks."

Well, Cormac is now a bit of a Great White himself but we hope he's not afraid of heights because he's rocketed to 7,138th position on the overall leaderboard, all thanks to the five members of Sully's Seven (Bob Estes, Peter O'Malley, Darren Clarke, Massimo Scarpa and Andrew Oldcorn), who were in action at the English Open and St Jude Classic.

Between them they won £288,750, with Estes and O'Malley contributing £100,000 each to the team total - Cormac was one of only two managers to have both the weekend winners in his line-up, all of which makes Art O'Laoghaire the unluckiest manager of the week. A polo shirt to you Art (and another to Nuala Murnaghan whose Little Tykes fell just £3,000 short of the winning total).

There's only one Golf Masters' tournament in week 16, but it's a big one - the US Open where double the regular prize money is on offer.