McGinley's presence crucial for Causeway

When Gerald Hussey came in off the course at Tralee last Tuesday he had plenty of reasons for not being in sparkling form. The 19-handicapper had left his A game at home in Newcastlewest and taken a bit of a beating from his playing partners. Gerald didn't reveal the precise details but it sounded like he'd lost the front nine, the back nine, the match, the bye and every side bet going.

Not only was his pocket lightened, he was also taking a bit of a slagging in the bar - until word filtered through from Tour Headquarters that his Causeway selection had taken the honours in week 13 of our season.

Suddenly Gerald had the bragging rights and a ready-made opportunity to arrange a rematch by availing of his prize of a fourball at Druids Heath, part of the Druids Glen complex that was last year's European Golf Resort of the Year. For good measure, he will walk the County Wicklow venue with his head up, his chest out and wearing a Cutter & Buck Golf Masters shirt.

Gerald has half a dozen teams in this year's competition but says that for the most part he has been too busy to make any transfers. However, with half the season gone and double money on offer at the US Open, the time was ripe for change and Gerald duly took the plunge. Fortunately he didn't follow the example of either Miriam Murphy from Bandon or Brian Sherwin from Skerries and transfer out Michael Campbell.

"No way, he's always had talent so I was hoping he'd come through at some stage," says Hussey. Instead he did the sensible thing and offloaded only those players who hadn't qualified for Pinehurst, namely Brian Davis, Simon Yates, Bradley Dredge and Aaron Baddeley. In came Rocco Mediate, Fred Funk, Craig Barlow and Robert Karlsson for a combined gain of a125,266.67. Add in Campbell's a200,000 for victory and Mark Hensby's a123,333.33 for tied third and you come to a448,600.

That wouldn't have been enough to beat Eddie Chow's Dream Team, who totalled a453,667, which is where one Paul McGinley, three airports and the 10-shot rule come in.

Heading out to Pinehurst, McGinley went to Heathrow instead of Gatwick and so missed his flight and arrived a day late. The curtailed preparation looked likely to give him a weekend off and he was at the airport in Carolina packed up and ready to return to London on Friday when Messrs Gore, Browne and Goosen backed up to two under par and allowed McGinley qualify on eight over under the USGA's 10-shot stipulation.

A call from Chubby Chandler quickly had the Dubliner back on the road to Pinehurst, where he shot 71-74 over the weekend to move up to a tie for 42nd and earn the critical a10,000 that gave Hussey our top ranking.

For good measure, his Causeway selection jumped 982 places to crash into the top 50 in the overall standings. Thirty-five teams failed to score this week, the average earnings were a63,521.47.