St Jude winner no help to this hopeless cause

“GOLF IS a funny game – sometimes it gives, sometimes it takes away,” said Lee Westwood after winning the St Jude Classic last Sunday, his first PGA Tour title in 12 years. It was a sentiment with which Donal Coleman quite probably agrees.

It’s a mere seven days since we put the kibosh on Donal by hailing him for becoming the first manager in our 2010 competition to hold on to top spot on the overall leaderboard for three consecutive weeks. His Wayward Lads, we concluded, had become a well disciplined and consistent little outfit.

And what happened a week later? Not one of the line-up put in an appearance at either the Portuguese Open or St Jude Classic, leaving Donal with weekly earnings of nothing. And there ended his hopes of making it a month at the top.

If it’s any consolation – and it’s highly unlikely it will be – another 220 teams suffered the same fate in week 10, among them Gripit and Ripit, managed by Daniel Mooney, who dropped from sixth to 12th overall.

Another 214 saw the only player they had in action missing the cut, 99 similarly let down by their two competitors. If that’s not enough statistics for you, only 14 per cent of our teams broke the €100,000 earnings barrier in week 10.

All of that is unlikely to lift Donal’s spirits, but what might be more comforting is that the two teams directly behind him last week didn’t fare a whole lot better: Darragh Halpin’s Piger Tickelson collected just €11,250 and Sam Holt’s eponymous line-up won a modest enough €60,000.

The Wayward Lads, then, have only dropped one spot, despite their woes, and, Donal will trust the five who are in the field for the US Open – Gareth Maybin, Luke Donald, Hunter Mahan, Ricky Barnes and Trevor Immelman (not counting any last-minute transfers) – will be well rested by the time they tee off at Pebble Beach.

With a €216,500 haul from our week 10 tournaments, Rathdowney Tigers took full advantage of the struggles of the six teams above them last week, replacing The Wayward Lads at the top.

Excluding the €1,500 contributed by Boo Weekley the rest of the total was earned by just three players – Westwood and two top-five finishers in Portugal, Robert Rock and Damien McGrane.

No one, though, could match Teresa Kavanagh’s total of €348,250, her line-up just one of six to top the €300,000 mark in week 10. It helped, of course, that she had both tournament winners, Westwood and Thomas Bjorn. The Dane’s victory in Estoril was his first since 2006.

Rock and McGrane chipped in with another €115,000 between them, with John Rollins, Graeme Storm and Oskar Henningsson’s combined efforts bringing in €33,250. It’s off to Druids Heath Teresa goes for a fourball.

Westwood appears in 345 Golf Masters teams, Bjorn in 342, both just outside the top 40 of our most popular list. KJ Choi (1,736) represents more teams than any other player in the competition, followed by Immelman (1,613), Barnes (1,103), Graeme McDowell (1,051) and Pádraig Harrington (887).

All five are in the field for the US Open, the only counting tournament in week 11, where, lest you forget, double the regular Golf Masters prize money is up for grabs.