Bill Hutchinson only lives four miles from Mount Juliet and on a clear day he can spot Golf Masters' fourball winners enjoying their day out at the Kilkenny golf club. Some day he'd like to win a fourball himself, but unless the players in his unnamed team (and that's probably just as well) start showing up for a few tournaments, and proceed to make the odd cut, he will remain a frustrated spectator.
Some managers intentionally pick dodgy line-ups in the hope that they will secure bottom place in the competition (hello to Rory Timlin in Salthill, Co Galway) but when we spoke to Bill earlier in the week, he admitted that he was actually hoping to win the £10,000 first prize . . . with the team that currently lie in 18,076th place.
"They could be like a horse, they could charge from last to first - then I'd get my fourball in Mount Juliet," he argued. Mmm. "Oh well, at least I got a polo shirt out of them," he added, on hearing of his consolation prize. The culprits in question are Padraig Harrington, Ignacio Garrido, Robert Allenby, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Richard Boxall, Klas Eriksson and Per Haugsrud, whose combined earnings to date amount to £43,000. Not a bad line-up though and, as Bill pointed out, their position should improve just a bit in the coming weeks now that the European Tour is moving in to full swing and Allenby has returned from a five-week holiday.
Just £2,083 behind
Bill is Dominick O'Grady of Clontarf, Dublin, whose Bankers have now suffered the blow that team captain Greg Norman, with his £5 million price tag, is out of action for the remainder of the season. Mind you, Paul McGinley, Mark James, Mark McNulty, Klas Eriksson, Michael Christie and Gary Evans haven't exactly given him much support. Oh well, there's always the 1999 Golf Masters.
The Bottom Ten
Manager Team Name Money
18,076 Bill Hutchinson Team No 10620 £43,000
18,075 Dominick O'Grady Bankers £45,083
18,074 Kevin Farrell AF1 £52,000
18,073 Conor Cooney CJC £59,129
18,072 Linda Tolan The Streamliners £66,500
18,071 Kevin Power Team No 13705 £73,600
18,070 Gabriel Power The Scramblers £74,858
18,069 John Kelly Team No 18400 £75,295
18,068 Pat Davis Kinsealy Lads £77,563
18,067 Denis Walsh Rabbit's Sevens £77,583
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