WELL, we did say if was going to be a big week with plenty of changes on the leader board. Sure enough, we have a new pacesetter here on the Dream Tour with Arthur Fitzpatrick hurtling from the obscurity of 3,200th place last week to the top of the pack.

Last week the Dubliner picked up £27,000 to finish 9,552nd in the weekly table, but seven days later he is also the weekly champion with £413,875 earned in Florida and Madeira Island. He, along with three friends, will be making their way from Monkstown to Mount Juliet for the latest of our fourballs.

Not that he is likely to go around in tower strokes than America's Fred Couples managed on his behalf at Ponte Vedra in Florida over the weekend. The 36 year old, who topped the US money list in 1992, shot a final round 64 to bag the Players Championship and earn £150,000 for. those Dream Tour manager's prudent enough to invest in his services.

As it having the winner of the first of our bonus events wasn't enough for Fitzpatrick, though, he also included second placed Colin Montgomerie who, after five weeks of the competition, is the only other player aside from Couples to have topped £200,000 in winnings.

Clearly then, Fitzpatrick was off to a good start, and his tally for the week was completed by Jim Furyk's £39,375 and £56,000 from both Des Smyth and David J. Russell, Ollo Karlsson and Steven Richardson took the weekend off.

The big winnings to be had on the other side of the Atlantic always meant that Jimmy Sheridan's overall lead was going to be threatened and, in." fact, the man from Cathedral. Road in Cavan drops to sixth" place in the competition after a disappointing week in which only one member of his team Peter Mitchell scored