Transfers put Webster in good standing

Irish Times/Allianz Golf Masters: Given how events turned out at Winged Foot it was appropriate one of the most significant moves up our leaderboard this week came from Robert Webster's Last Man Standing.

The Limerick manager is a true devotee of Golf Masters and he used his fifth and sixth transfers of the season to grab some of the double money on offer at the US Open.

Webster bade farewell to the idle Paul Lawrie and Bradley Dredge and recruited Fred Funk and Peter Hedblom, who between them won 45,500. The small matter of 200,000 won by Geoff Ogilvy had even more to do with Webster's rise of 90 places to 16th in our overall standings.

Of course, sometimes you have to take at least a medium-term view, and that bit of business mightn't seem so clever this time next week if either Lawrie or Dredge wins the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

It's Hedblom's turn to have a week off, while Funk goes to Maryland for the Booz Allen Classic, where he has a decidedly mixed track record. Funk celebrated his 50th birthday on the eve of the US Open and will make his Champions Tour debut next month. He may need a JCB to cart away all the money he will win in seniors golf but you can expect his Golf Masters earnings to fall.

Having been outside the top-100 a week ago, Webster can now realistically set his sights on top spot, which was regained by Fergal Lynch this week with his Weir and Brier selection. They earned a respectable 161,000 at Winged Foot, while previous leader Michael Keegan struggled to just €89,375 as his team couldn't live up to their name at the second major of the season. Par Excellence was always going to be difficult to achieve on a course set up by the USGA, and Keegan's team were outside the top 3,000.

That allowed Mark Murnaghan to jump into second with Dragonflies, who bagged 186,000 and could have flown even higher if Jim Furyk had holed his short par putt on the final hole. Furyk's bogey was far from the worst mistake made at the last.

Our "Colin Montgomerie Six From The Middle Of The Fairway Award" goes to Tim Mulhall, who transferred out Ogilvy to bring in Furyk for the Winged Foot test: net loss 60,000.

The "Phil Mickelson I'm Such An Idiot, I Can't Believe I Did That Award" goes to Laura Mullery, the only other manager to take out Ogilvy; she replaced him with his playing partner of last Sunday, Ian Poulter.

Poulter is a good golfer, though maybe not as good as he thinks, but dressed in pink and with a pink bag he was unlikely to win the US Open, and only Kenneth Ferrie of the top 20 had a worse round on Sunday. The transfer resulted in a net loss of 142,000 for Mullery and her Watch the Albatross selection. Ouch.

We feel double money is a fair reward at the majors but twice nothing is still nothing and three teams failed to score. Average earnings were 84,596.08.