Cunningham's boys no shams

Just four weeks and six tournaments to go, and if you hear a sizzling sound that'll be the Golf Masters' air. Quite how Tim Morris, Ray Charles, Packie Gallagher and the rest of our leading managers are going to cope with the stresses and strains of the next month we're not quite sure, but the finishing post is in sight - as is that trip to the Belfry for the Ryder Cup, not to mention £5,000 in spending money.

Last week Tim told us he reckoned he'd peaked too early when he wrestled top spot on the overall leaderboard from Ray's grasp, but Missing Links 3 appeared comfortable enough leading from the front in week 23, turning in another solid team performance by winning exactly £100,000.

Ian Poulter, one of the players Tim has had in his line-up since registration time back in February, was top scorer for the leaders, picking up £75,000 for his share of second at the Scandinavian Masters. But he is one of three players Tim has in common with Castle Street 1 (the others being Robert Karlsson and Paul McGinley), so he made no headway there.

With the help of Scott McCarron's joint 20th finish at the International in Colorado, Ray was able to narrow Tim's lead this week - but only by £1,500 to £62,439. Packie Gallagher, meanwhile, fell further behind the top two after Keadue Rovers collected just £74,500 at the weekend. One bit of good news for Packie, though, is Sergio Garcia's announcement that he intends to play the BMW International, our final European tournament, in an attempt to win automatic selection for the Ryder Cup.

All three managers, and their closest challengers, could do with a week like John Cunningham of Galway just had. John's Shams 2 had a Scandinavian Masters to savour, with winner Colin Montgomerie, Poulter, Adam Scott and Jarrod Moseley bringing in the bulk of the team's pickings (£236,700). Brad Faxon topped the total up by another £47,500, for his share of sixth in America. Add in Aaron Baddeley's £500 for missing the cut in Sweden and you have a fourball-winning weekly total of £284,700.

If the battle at the top is tense, it's no less so at the bottom where Sligo's Paul Coughlan is proudly sitting 18,872th and last with the appropriately named Also Rans. Paul currently holds a £13,460 "lead" over none other than Rory Timlin of Galway, who is gunning for an unprecedented third Worst Manager of the Year title having finished bottom in 1997 and 1998.

Paul and Rory are the only two managers yet to break the £200,000 earning mark this year. Congratulations to both for a quite remarkable achievement.

We're certain that both men will look at this week's overall leaderboard and feel nothing but pity for the managers of the 50 teams that have now broken the £3 million barrier. Congratulations to all of them too.

Just as a reminder to you all, the last six tournaments of the competition are this week's Wales Open and the Buick Open, next week's USPGA (your final chance to win double the regular prize money), week 26's NEC Invitational in Ohio and the final week's BMW International and Air Canada Championship.