"It's a very stressful time," admitted Pat Corby when we rang him to tell him he'd leapfrogged over David Maune to take the lead in the Golf Masters, by just £16,280, with only two weeks and four tournaments to go. Stressful? We reckon "stomach-churning" is a more appropriate description for what Pat, David and third-placed Roger Mullarkey are going through at the moment. Pat, though, sounded remarkably calm, even if he was busy agonising over his final transfer when we spoke. "You'd need a crystal ball to know who's playing in the final week, that's what's delaying me from taking the plunge," he said. One player who is likely to retain his membership of Blackbirds 7 is Carlos Franco, whose third place finish at last weekend's Air Canada Championship was largely responsible for lifting the team to top spot for only the second time in the competition (they last led in week 21).
"I already owed him a pint for doing so well for me, now I'll have to get him a brandy as well," he said of the man from Paraguay, who's also in the field for this week's Canadian Open. The European Masters and the Air Canada Championship proved to be fairly miserable tournaments for both David Maune and Roger Mullarkey, with David's Cremorne 1 winning just £6,100 (through Des Smyth, Chris DiMarco and Len Mattiace) and Roger's Twilight Zone (represented by just two players at the weekend, Smyth and Greg Kraft) picking up not much more - £13,750.
Ian Garbutt's top-30 finish at the European Masters, for which he collected £14,500, added to Franco's cheque for £70,000, make Blackbirds 7 the team to catch in the final run-in. This week's British Masters should have a significant bearing on the outcome of the race for the £10,000 first prize, it being our final bonus tournament of the competition.
The deadline for making transfers for this week's tournaments was midnight last night but rather than holding the back page and waiting for news of Pat's decision - he confirmed he would make a change to the team, he just wasn't sure which player he'd bring in - we decided to leave him in peace because, as he put it himself, he needed time to "strategise". As his team stood before making his transfer Pat had only two players in the field for the British Masters - Retief Goosen (who is also in David and Roger's line-ups) and Garbutt - so it's likely that he'll have brought in a third player who'll be teeing off at Woburn today. Roger will have four players in action at Woburn, but three - Smyth, Goosen and Colin Montgomerie - are also members of Cremorne 1, so his hopes of narrowing the gap on David rest on the shoulders of British Open winner Paul Lawrie.
"If Monty delivers the goods this week it could be curtains for me," said Pat, who must hope for a rare slump in form from the Scot if he is to keep David and Roger at bay. See what this competition does to you, wishing ill on golfers who've never done you any harm?
Over at the Canadian Open Roger has Tim Herron and Greg Kraft in the field; David has Herron, DiMarco and Mattiace and Pat has Franco and Hal Sutton. Mind you, Willie Wood (employed by Pat) was in the draw for last week's Air Canada Championship but his place was taken by an alternate, so all three managers will nervously await the first round to see who has turned up. Bill Rogers of Dunboyne, Co Meath is hoping that one day he'll be in Pat, David and Roger's position, battling it out for first place in the competition, but for now he's more than happy to settle for a fourball at Mount Juliet after his "Marina" line-up won him the weekly prize (their top earners were Lee Westwood, winner of the European Masters, and Fred Funk, runner-up in Canada).
Do you play yourself, Bill? "Well, I have golf clubs," he said, admitting that he did more digging than golfing with said clubs on his only previous visit to Mount Juliet. Pat, David and Roger will hope that their team members' form is just a tad more impressive in this week's tournaments.
