"YOU'RE not serious," said Galway City resident John Rice when we phoned with the news that he'd won a fourball in Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, not to mention a lip-smacking meal for the fourballing quartet. "We certainly are," we reassured the manager whose sole entry in last year's competition rarely kept its head above Golf Mastering water.
Litter wonder, then, that John was flabbergasted by his success, which was in no small part due to Bernhard Langer's all-conquering Dutch Open heroics, Jeff Sluman's fourth place at the John Deere Classic (where winner David Gossett may well have clinched his maiden Golf Masters' card for next year) and Padraig Harrington and Andrew Oldcorn's share of ninth in Holland.
Pitch in Stephen Allen's cheque - for £11,750 - for taking a share of 29th on Dutch territory (although we note that it could have been so much better - he had rounds of 65, 68 and 67. . . and 76) and you have yourself a weekly winning total of £242,417 . . . and a substantial rise of 1,110 overall places for The Secret Seven to 815th on the leaderboard.
We should mention, though (particularly for the benefit of Dermot Burke, Michael Delaney, Eoin O'Regan, Duncan Scott, Eamonn O'Brien, the five other managers who topped the £200,000 earning mark in week 22) that John had inside information that helped him no end.
"I had a chat with Langer's caddie at the European Open. He was walking down the fairway and I asked him, 'How's he doing today?'. He said, 'He's doing alright but the putts aren't dropping for birdies, but they will soon'.
They dropped for him at the Dutch Open alright so the caddie must have got the putting right for him at last. "Will you send him a thank you note?" "I probably should."
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