Lane earns Warriors' Sargent his stripes

GOLF MASTERS: True, Barry Lane's triumph at the British Masters at the Forest of Arden catapulted him from 209th to 133rd in the latest ranking list, but that leap was positively inconsequential next to Michael Sargent's week seven rise on the Golf Masters' overall leaderboard.

Before last weekend's results were totted up, Michael's Warriors had shown themselves to be more lily-livered than fearless, but thanks in part to Lane's first European Tour win in 10 years they've woken from their slumber and now have an upwardly mobile look about them.

After winning 100,000 more in week seven than they had earned in all of the first six weeks of the competition, The Warriors have risen 6,481 places on the leaderboard. That's a decent week's work.

With 722,131 and 3,614 places still to make up on our leader, Paul Dowling, we're reluctant to make any bold predictions on behalf of The Warriors, but at least Michael can now show his face in Corbally without people stopping, staring, pointing and whispering: "He's the fella whose Golf Masters' team isn't even in the top 10,000".

Better still, Michael is bound for the Heritage Golf and Country Club in Killenard, Co Laois, for a fourball and lunch, as The Warriors' earnings of 289,214 were enough to hold off the challenge of Ruairí Jordan and Robert Webster on the weekly board.

The bulk of that winning total was collected at the British Masters, with three Warriors - Lane, Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera - filling the top three places and Ian Woosnam taking a share of 16th place. Mike Weir brought in another 16,214 from the Wachovia Championship, where Mark O'Meara missed the cut.

"He was due a change of luck," said Michael of Lane's first European Tour win in 10 years, 57 days and 252 events.

Another manager who reckoned Lane was due an upturn in fortunes was Michael's fellow Limerick man, Robert Webster, the only manager in the entire competition to transfer Lane into his team last week. Impressive. Unfortunately for Robert, he fell 34,500 short of Michael's total, leaving him in third, but his prescience does earn him a polo shirt.

Someone else who was due a change of luck was Joey Sindelar. His lean spell had lasted even longer than Lane's, going 14 years and 370 tournaments without a PGA Tour victory. But worse, much, much worse, he lost his Golf Masters' card after last season. "I never gave up hope," he said on Sunday, after his win, referring, no doubt, to his dream of regaining his GM card.

Paul Dowling and Marco Marugliano swapped places on the overall leaderboard in week seven, Paul's Pittsburgh Phil moving from third to first, with Eoin Kirk still sandwiched between. Their battle recommences at the Byron Nelson Championship this week and the Asian Open at the Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club. If any of our managers fail geography in the Leaving this summer they should sue the PGA.