The Chislers close to making breakthrough

Well, despite their teams' best efforts to allow the chasing pack catch up at the weekend, Edward Staunton and Kieran O'Toole enter the final three weeks of the Golf Masters with a comfortable cushion over their closest rivals. There is, however, nothing comfortable about Woosnam's Wonders' lead over The Chislers . . . it is now down to just £2,950. Both teams had a low scoring weekend - Staunton's winning just £24,250 and O'Toole's £46,583 - but the teams filling third to fifth places last week (managed by Matthew Ryan, Paul Dowling and Tony Murnaghan) had even lower returns, collecting only £83,583 between them at the International Open in Germany and the Greater Milwaukee Open.

The Chislers have Padraig Harrington to thank for helping them cut the lead at the top by £22,000. Kieran replaced Jesper Parnevik with the Dubliner a fortnight ago and, although the switch didn't pay off in Week 26, Harrington's share of ninth in Germany added 35,333 much needed pounds to the team's kitty.

Kieran took the plunge last week and used up his final two transfers, firing Roger Chapman and Eamon Darcy and bringing in Ignacio Garrido and David Carter for the run-in. However, with both new boys missing the cut in Germany, Kieran has concluded that he is "the kiss of death for these fellas". Our Baltinglass manager was painfully aware of the £6,750 the sacked Chapman won in Germany when we spoke to him earlier in the week.

It was a low scoring week for almost all our leading teams, mainly because many of the most `hired' players - including Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Darren Clarke and Ian Woosnam - did not play. Others like Carter and Garrido, missed the cut.

Scott Hoch's victory in Milwaukee added £100,000 to the accounts of just .84 per cent of our teams with runner-up Loren Roberts featuring in less than two per cent. Even fewer managers (.56 per cent) benefited from Robert Karlsson's success in Germany.

Colin Montgomerie appears in almost nine per cent of our teams but Jack Slane is the only leading manager to include the Scot in his line-up. The £70,000 he won for his third place finish at the International Open sent Slane 2 from 11th to fifth this week, the only significant move in the top half of the overall leaderboard.

Of last week's top 10 managers Theresa O'Sullivan was the highest earner, winning £80,833, enough to move her back up to fourth overall. Despite trailing Edward Staunton by over £180,000 Theresa's Trashers may be one of the teams to watch over the closing weeks.

As the only top 10 manager to employ Stewart Cink, Mark James, Jeff Maggert, and just one of two to have Tommy Tolles in her line-up, Theresa's prospects of winning the £10,000 first prize would be boosted significantly if the quartet could produce a few top 10 finishes between them in the next five tournaments - Cink and Tolles are both in the field for this week's Canadian Open (Michael McManamon, last year's winner, was £100,000 behind the leader going in to the final weekend of the Golf Masters so there's hope for all).

All our contenders could do with a weekend like Steve Kelly's Pin High Club had in Germany and Milwaukee. Steve, from Ashford, Co Wicklow, had both tournament winners - Hoch and Karlsson - and picked up another £83,000 through Harrington, Wayne Westner and Marc Farry. A fourball in Mount Juliet and a Golf Masters polo shirt is the reward for his team's total earnings of £285,033.

So, 47 tournaments gone, just five to go, beginning with this week's European Masters in Switzerland and the Canadian Open in Montreal. Keep an eye on the form of Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington in Switzerland - Clarke is Woosnam's Wonders' Irish representative in the tournament, Harrington flies the flag for the Chislers.