There was, we felt, a certain lack of sensitivity in the coverage of Padraig Harrington's mishap at the Belfry last weekend. All we heard were expressions of sympathy for the player, sentiments we shared, but did anyone stop to think how his 3,150 Golf Masters' managers felt (that's just over 15 per cent of our entire entry)? Evidently not.
Indeed the sound of the thud of 3,150 jaws hitting the floor and 3,150 sets of teeth being gnashed on Sunday morning when news of Harrington's disqualification emerged, could probably have been heard at the Belfry.
"Did I mention I transferred Padraig into my team last week, just in time to collect £150,000 from his Benson and Hedges International Open win," 15 of our managers probably asked their loved ones on several occasions the night before. Well, come Sunday morning Marie O'Rourke (Killiney), Fintan Moran (Banagher), Graham Cook (Ballinteer), Seamus Cunningham (Leighlinbridge), Declan Mullally (Athlone), George Cross (Clonskeagh), Peter Quillinan (Tralee), Eilish Humphries (Goatstown), Paul Dowling (Wicklow) and Kevin Barry (Dun Laoghaire) - 10 of the 15 - were left wondering what they had done to deserve such misfortune.
(We can only assume Peter Maher of Templeogue had a premonition - he fired Harrington from six of his teams last week, so was spared a share of the agony).
And what about Jose Maria Olazabal's 368 managers? Were you all on the phone to us first thing on Monday morning offering to buy polo shirts for each and every one of the 3,150, after collecting your unexpectedly large winnings? No, we're still waiting to hear from you. Pat Corby and Risteard de Barra? We sincerely hope you were both shattered by Harrington's bad luck, even though it meant the man you brought into your team last week ended up winning the tournament. Michael Campbell's 4,719 managers? All we can say is we hope you never bump into any of the 3,150.
Frank Mooney of Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, also had Harrington in a couple of his teams and once he'd heard that he'd forgotten to autograph his scorecard on the Thursday evening, all but gave up on it being a happy Golf Masters' weekend. But he'd forgotten about his Langer's Lads' line-up who won a combined £382,125 at the Belfry, enough to win him a trip to Tulfarris, a fourball and a meal for four. Top scorer for Frank's team was Philip Price, runner-up to Olazabal, followed by Andrew Coltart (fourth), Stephen Gallacher (joint fifth) and three players who tied for 18th, Paul McGinley, Berhard Langer and Massimo Florioli (only Per Nyman failed to make it past the second round).
For the first time this year none of our teams earned zero pounds, although one, Dad's Army, picked up just £500, their plight not helped by Des Smyth's disqualification in England. Just over 1,000 of our line-ups featured Jesper Parnevik, winner of the Byron Nelson Classic, helping boost the average score in week 11 to £89,042 - the overall average to date is £654,639.
This week's American tournament is the Colonial while in Europe Parnevik is in the field for the Deutsche Bank Open in which Tiger Woods is defending the title he won last year - good news for his 3,679 managers who would have been more than a little relieved to see him turn up for only his fourth tournament of the Golf Masters' season last week. Still, he's averaged £96,875 in winnings every time he's played. And he's top of our leading earners' list - second-placed Hal Sutton needed eight tournaments to win his £383,400.
