The Bottom Line

Six weeks ago, when we last checked on Rory Timlin's (ahem) progress in the competition we weren't surprised to find him still anchored to the bottom of our overall leaderboard, where he had been rooted since Week 13.

Back then, though, his `lead' over Dermot Hogan of Limerick wasn't exactly unassailable - u(pound sign) £68,500 could have been wiped out by a couple of catastrophically good performances by members of his Underdogs' line-up.

But you don't finish bottom of the 1997 Golf Masters without being able to recognise an out-of-form golfer (or one out for the season through injury) and, having inspected the latest standings, we have now stopped taking bets on our Salthill manager retaining his 1997 crown.

Yes, Rory - who won just u £500 this week (through Keith Nolan) has now stretched his deficit to a quite breathtaking u £169,298 over secondfrom-bottom Paula Hesnan of Dublin. While things have gone badly wrong for Dermot, whose team has won an alarmingly healthy u £151,000 over the past six weeks, compare that with the heroic efforts of the Underdogs who have won just u £27,000 in the last three months. (Word has it that an open-top bus trip through the streets of Salthill is being organised for Rory, once the competition ends in September).