Manager with the Midas touch

There's a lot to be said for having two teams in the top three on the Golf Masters' overall leaderboard, with just four weeks to go in the competition. At least then when one of your teams has a nightmarish week there's always a chance the other will keep your £10,000-winning hopes alive. Ask Paul Sheehan.

Last week Paul 1 sat on top of the leaderboard, £33,121 ahead of Niall Murray's Seven Up, but then three of the line-up didn't make it in to the field for the World Series of Golf, another two won just £2,000 between them at the International Open, leaving it to the team's "big two", Darren Clarke (joint 13th in Munich) and Vijay Singh (tied for 14th in Ohio), to nudge Paul 1's earnings past the £50,000 mark for the week - all of which saw the team slip from first to third.

And what about Paul 8, third last week? Well, having already struck gold in the transfer market, by replacing Jose Maria Olazabal with Singh in Paul 1's line-up, Paul Sheehan went for broke again last week, bringing Miguel Angel Jimenez in for Paul 8's David Carter . . . Carter won £9,250 in Ohio . . . Jimenez took a share of sixth in Munich, winning £41,800. Is that what they call the Midas touch?

A top 10 finish for Scott Hoch in America and solid displays by Clarke and Billy Mayfair helped Paul 8 to a total of £126,800 in week 26, enough to help them swap places with Paul 1 and regain the lead they held in week 24.

What's all the more remarkable about Paul having two teams in the top three, and another in seventh, is that he only entered 38 teams in the competition - 38 might sound a lot, but a significant proportion of our managers have entered 100 teams and more.

"I only intended entering one . . . but you know how it is," said Paul. "It was getting embarrassing when I was approaching 40, so I called a halt to it. I have Bob Estes in all my teams and Darren Clarke in most of them, so they've all done reasonably well because both players have had such good seasons.

"Of my top three teams I think only one of them has a chance really, and that's the one that's on top this week - that's probably the best line-up I have for the last four weeks' tournaments. I'd be most concerned about Brian Fitzpatrick (currently fifth) - he has a nice looking team AND has four transfers left, which could give him a strong line-up every week."

Kevin Barry, who has no transfers left, and Niall Murray, who has two, swapped places this week, with Kevin's Augusta Special moving up from fourth to second. The only new entry in to week 26's top 10 is Robbie Canning, of Loughrea, Co Galway - Jimenez, Hoch, Clarke, Jean Van de Velde and John Huston won £139,675 between them, lifting Ansbacher Account 99 from 11th to sixth.

Limerick's Neil Duggan is this week's fourball winner - by some distance, after his team finished £76,500 ahead of second placed Joe O'Reilly. All seven of Neil's line-up played in the week's two tournaments, with four finishing in the top 10 - World Series of Golf winner David Duval, Jamie Spence and Thomas Gogele, second and third respectively in Germany and Derrick Cooper, who tied for sixth.

Just 67 managers had International Open winner Russell Claydon in their line-ups, with considerably more - 687 - benefiting from Duval's victory in Ohio. The average weekly score was £67,430, bringing the average overall total up to £1,756,718.

Commiserations to managers of Lee Janzen and Ian Woosnam, both disqualified at the weekend. Janzen, playing in Ohio, broke Rule 16-2 of the Rules of Golf by taking too long for a birdie putt to sink in the opening round (27 seconds, to be exact), while Woosnam was disqualified in Munich for signing an incorrect score - not such bad news for his employers, he had missed the cut anyway.

This week's action takes place at the Greater Milwaukee Open in Wisconsin and the European Masters in Switzerland, where Lee Westwood is scheduled to return after a hip injury ruled him out of the International Open. Gerry Lonergan (ninth overall) will hope to emulate Paul Sheehan's success on the transfer market - he replaced Westwood with Singh, who is playing in Milwaukee, last week.