`Almost there' is not enough

Sometimes this world seems so small it's a wonder there's room for all of us. Just ask two of our Golf Masters managers, Peter Beakhurst and David Kelly, both of whom work at Elm Park Golf Club in Dublin. Having had Patrik Sjoland and Notah Begay in his team, the winners of last weekend's Irish and Greater Hartford Opens, David suspected he might have been in with a chance of winning a fourball, so he checked our results line. It wasn't to be, he finished third. He was happy enough, though - at least he'd finally see his name on the leaderboard. On arriving in work on Tuesday he shared the news with his colleagues, amongst them Peter who congratulated him heartily. Wednesday morning. Time for us to ring the weekly winner. Congratulations...Peter Beakhurst. That's the same Peter Beakhurst who hadn't checked the results line because he'd long since given up on Optimistic bringing him any success this year. There then followed a conversation of the "you're not going to believe this" variety, as Peter told us his tale. So, take a bow Elm Park Golf Club, two of your employees are in our top three this week. And one of them is off to Tulfarris Golf Club for a fourball and a meal for four.

Peter was about to head for Elm Park when we spoke to him and he promised to pass on our offer of a polo shirt to David whose jaw, we reckon, tumbled in a floorwards direction on hearing who had pipped him to the weekly prize. Deepest commiseration's, too, to second placed Niall White of Castleknock (who also had Sjoland and Begay in his line-up) and Mark Morris who, like David, are entitled to feel a little aggrieved at not winning a fourball having topped the £400,000 earning mark this week. Incidentally, Niall, David and Mark might flash a rueful smile on hearing that Notah Begay translates as "almost there" in the Navajo language. As will another Begay employer who rang our helpline earlier in the week assuming he'd won a fourball - because he had both tournament winners in his team - only to be informed that he had finished in . . . 76th place. There's always someone better off, sometimes 75 someones. Still, it was going to take a bit of a miracle to outscore Peter's team, all seven of whom were in the money at the weekend. Sjoland, Paul McGinley, Stephen Gallacher and Alastair Forsyth left Ballybunion with combined earnings of £293,400 while over in Connecticut Kirk Triplett, Jim Furyk and Steve Flesch all finished in the top eight, winning the team another £177,750. Grand total: £471,150, enough to send them soaring a couple of thousand places to . . . 3,600th.

For the second week running Begay and Fredrik Jacobson were primarily responsible for Colin Rutherford's ascent up the overall leaderboard, with the Swede's second place finish at the Irish Open helping Glenmore Eagles 2 take over the lead from Fionnuala McMahon and the American top-scoring for Glenmore Eagles 5, who rise from ninth to fifth. Our biggest movers this week, though, were Brian Murnaghan, up from 31st to 10th, defending Golf Masters' champion David Maune, up from 30th to 11th, Gordon Mills (a 'new entry' at 14) and Michael Gilmartin, in at 16th thanks largely to the efforts of Rolf Muntz, joint third at the Irish Open, and Triplett.

There's yet more bonus money on offer this week at the European Open while Tiger Woods is due to return to action at the Western Open - if, as expected, he wins we'll probably see Paul Ryan back on top next week . . . unless Darren Clarke or Padraig Harrington triumph at the K-Club (remember, £400,000 to an Irish winner) in which case Colin Rutherford will be dancing in the streets of Lisburn.