Harrington switch puts Callanan over €3m mark

We have no doubt that our managers were overjoyed for Rich Beem and his not widely forecast success at Hazeltine last weekend, but he may as well still have been selling car stereos and mobile phones for all the relevance his triumph had for their Golf Masters' fortunes.

Yes, Beem may have a "major" to his name after winning the US PGA, but he is still not in possession of a Golf Masters' card - he may, however, have done just about enough to secure himself one for next time around.

The fella who finished a shot behind Beem is, though, making a bit of an impact on the competition, becoming the first player on our list to pass the €1 million earning mark on Sunday. Woods. Tiger Woods. We trust you've heard of him.

And speaking of Golf Masters' luminaries crashing through significant earning barriers: one of our managers skipped past the €3 million mark this week. Callanan. Pat Callanan. We trust you've heard of him, too.

Pat took the plunge on the eve of the US PGA and used up his very last transfer - it worked a treat, too. Out went Colin Montgomerie, in came Padraig Harrington, who, despite that neck injury, still managed to outscore the Scot by €41,000. Still, though, Harrington was only Pat's fourth highest earner of the week, with Fred Funk and Vijay Singh at the US PGA and Philip Walton at the North West of Ireland Open faring even better. In the end "Paddy's Fourth" earned over €286,000, keeping Pat's Golf Masters' winning-hopes ticking over beautifully.

But, thanks to the rather noteworthy display of "Razor Sharp", managed by Rathmines resident Roger Mullarkey, Pat has seen his advantage at the top of the overall leaderboard cut by €100,000 to an, admittedly, still-not-to-be-sniffed-at €154,083 this week. "Razor Sharp", up from 12th, was our 14th highest scoring team of the week, courtesy of weighty contributions from Woods and the pair who shared fourth place at Hazeltine, Justin Leonard and Funk.

And, just for good measure, Roger has also moved into third place overall with "Hall of Fame", up from 14th, with Woods, Funk, Philip Walton (joint sixth at Ballyliffin) and Justin Rose its chief money winners.

Keep an eye, too, on Simon Dunne of Monkstown in Dublin, who's risen from 16th to fourth with the aptly named "Making Moves", for whom Woods and Funk starred at the US PGA.

The manager entitled to the largest dose of sympathy is Brian Hayden whose Gobbo 2 let him down a bagful last week, dropping from 13th to 63rd overall after a, well, unproductive showing that saw them finish 9,112th on the weekly leaderboard.

Brian can exempt Harrington from criticism, but he can line up his angry canons in the direction of Montgomerie, Carl Petersson and JL Lewis, all of whom missed the cut at the US PGA.

To the 39 managers - including Brian - who transferred David Higgins in to their teams on the eve of the North West of Ireland Open, in the hope that he would collect them the €400,000 bonus prize on offer to an Irish winner of an Irish tournament, we offer heartfelt commiserations.

Bad enough that he had to withdraw with tendinitis in his hand, worse that his physiotherapist has advised him to take three weeks off. We'll take it, then, he won't be at the Scottish PGA this week, which, along with the NEC Invitational, is the Golf Masters' next port of call.