Paul Lawrie's form up to week 20 of the Golf Masters' didn't exactly hint at what was to come at Carnoustie. He played in 14 of the tournaments on our list, missed the cut in six and had his best finish back in week eight when he tied for seventh at the Spanish Open. Last week he was only 90th on our leading earners' list. So what were Catherine McDonald (Meath), Michael Delaney (Portlaoise), James Aitken (Mount Merrion), Maria Nolan (Blackrock), Owen O'Donnell (Dundrum), T A Walshe (Raheny) and our reigning champion Paul Sheehan (Dublin) thinking of when they transferred him to one of their teams on the eve of the British Open?

"Ah, it was just a fluke," said Owen O'Donnell, modestly, when we spoke to him yesterday. Owen is currently based in Stockholm and manages his teams by e-mail (his most successful line-up to date is Armitage Shanks who are currently in 50th place overall). He promised to show off his Golf Masters' polo shirt at his local club in Stockholm if we sent him one, so we will.

We'll also send two to the unfortunate managers who sacked Lawrie on the eve of the British Open - Ann McCracken of Grange Road, Dublin and Ann O'Donnell of Beaumont in Dublin. A polo shirt too for Kilian Maxwell of Dundrum who named one of his teams Ou Est Van de Velde? after spotting that the Frenchman hadn't made it onto our player list for the 1999 competition. "As manager of the most appropriately named team of the year I would like to claim a polo shirt," he said. There's one in the post.

The average score at the British Open was £97,726, bringing the overall average to £1,292,513. Lawrie's victory now makes him our 22nd highest-earning player and the fifth on the "best value for money" list.