Run of luck ends odyssey

George Leech was a broken man when we spoke to him after week eight of last year's Golf Masters and all we could do to help ease his pain was offer him a polo shirt. Our Enniscorthy manager, in his fourth year in the competition, reckoned he'd finally come up with a sure-fire way of clinching himself a four-ball in Mount Juliet. With that week's Spanish Open in mind he'd entered a team that included Jose Maria Olazabal, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Miguel Angel Martin, Seve Ballesteros and Ignacio Garrido, convinced their familiarity with the course would guarantee the `Spanish Hot Shots' first place on the weekly leader-board. "Seventy-eight under par they were," George sighed, when we spoke to him earlier this week. (We noted with interest that 14 months on he still remembered his team's exact combined score). "Seventy-eight under par and it wasn't even enough to get me on the leader-board, never mind win a four-ball." In fact the `Spanish Hot Shots' finished in 1,256th place that week, which could have been enough to turn a disillusioned George off Golf Masters' management for life. But no, he persevered.

So, it was with considerable pleasure that we broke the good news to George this week - `Homer's Mixed' had won him that elusive four-ball. "Well, that's the best news I've had in five years," he said. By Sunday afternoon five of his line-up had combined earnings of £306,000 (or £305,999.99, to be exact) from the German Open - Jarmo Sandelin (winner), Retief Goosen (who lost to Sandelin at the first playoff hole), Padraig Harrington and Alex Cejka (who tied for sixth) and David Carter (who took a share of ninth).

All of which completed a fairly momentous few days for George - last Thursday he won the seniors' competition at Enniscorthy, on Sunday he finished third in the mixed competition and today he not only appears top of our weekly leader-board but he also jumps to 19th on the overall leader-board, the first time in five years he's made it into the top 50. We took a note of George's lotto numbers, just in case.

Incidentally, we wondered if George's four-ball-winning team was named after either (a) a Greek poet or (b) Bart Simpson's Da, but he told us it was neither - Homer is the name of his mixed partner's dog. ("Will you give a plug to the pro-am at Enniscorthy on July 7th," he asked. "We'll do our best," we promised). Not a bad week either for Colomba Gavigan of Glenties, Co Donegal, who rose from fourth to second overall, cutting David Maune's lead by just over £50,000 (to £145,197) after `Over The Top' finished as the week's eighth-highest earning team - Tom Lehman and Tim Herron (joint second at the St Jude Classic behind Ted Tryba, who lost his Golf Masters' card this year) and Goosen were Colomba's top earners.

Pat Corby's Blackbirds 10 (who came 22nd on the weekly leader-board) have joined their cousins Blackbirds 7 in the top four while Paul Sheehan's Bite Baby are up from ninth to fifth, with Goosen and Herron their big winners in week 15. It wasn't, though, a great week for most of our managers with 94 players on our list either taking the week off or withdrawing from their respective tournaments (Carlos Franco, Neal Lancaster and Tommy Tolles fell in to the second category - Greg Norman at least picked up £1,500 for his managers because he didn't withdraw until after the third round at the St Jude Classic).