They think it's all over - it will be on Sunday

Barring a mathematical miracle and a most peculiar set of results from the British Masters and Texas Open this weekend, by Sunday evening a resident of Mullinahone, Baltinglass or Castletroy will have the tricky task of deciding how to spend £10,000. After eight months and 50 tournaments that's the prize within reach of Edward Staunton, Kieran O'Toole and Matthew Ryan as we enter the final week of the 1997 Golf Masters.

This time 12 months ago the task of working out which managers had a mathematical chance of winning the top prize was a simple one because the European Open was the only tournament on our final weekend. But, this year, we finish with two tournaments, one of which, the British Masters, offers one and a half times the regular prize money.

So, a team could, conceivably, win £690,000 if it filled the top seven places at the Forest of Arden - that, combined with a string of miserable performances from the players in our leading teams, could result in a manager coming from almost nowhere to snatch that £10,000 prize (the second placed team wins £1,000, third wins £500).

Even Denis Sheehan, down in 21st place, could win first prize if Costantino Rocca, Jamie Spence and Jon Robson finished in the top three at the British Masters . . . and most of the key players in the teams above him missed the cut. Unlikely, maybe, but Denis is entitled to dream so long as the sums give him hope.

The highest placed teams that can be ruled out of contention are Michael Smith's MS 4 and Paul Dowling's Team 22 (which led the competition in weeks 15 and 16) - only two of Michael's team are playing this weekend while the four players Paul has in action are also in Kieran O'Toole's line-up.

Theresa O'Sullivan's very slim hopes rest on Jeff Maggert in Texas and Mark James in England (she shares Goosen and Ames with Staunton), while Jack Slane is depending on Colin Montgomerie and Ross McFarlane to produce a miracle for Slane 2 (he also has Goosen, Ames and Carter in his line-up).

But Staunton, O'Toole and Ryan remain our serious contenders. Staunton, who increased his lead over O'Toole by £16,600 last weekend, has been top of the overall leaderboard for 11 of the last 12 weeks and now has a lead of £61,550 over O'Toole and £67,800 over Ryan. With six of his team - Darren Clarke, Ian Woosnam, Jose Maria Olazabal, Retief Goosen, Stephen Ames and David Carter - playing in the British Masters he should prove difficult to catch.

"You never know, anyone can miss the cut but, at this stage, money in the Dream Tour bank is worth more than potential. Once the money's there it has to be matched. I'm sure there could be nerves at the weekend but if I was a betting man I'd much prefer to be where I am," said our leading manager.

Four of Kieran O'Toole's team are in the British Masters field - Olazabal, Carter, Lee Westwood and Ignacio Garrido - with Scott McCarron his sole representative at the Texas Open. So, if The Chislers are to catch Woosnam's Wonders the combined earnings of Westwood, Garrido and McCarron must be £61,550 more than the total prize money won by Clarke, Woosnam, Goosen and Ames.

Meanwhile, Matthew Ryan's hopes of overtaking the top two in the final week took a plunge with the news that Per-Ulrik Johansson is not playing this week, leaving Clarke, Olazabal, Garrido and Ames to fly the Tiger Tenacious flag at the British Masters and David Ogrin in Texas, where he is the defending champion.

Our penultimate winner of a fourball in Mount Juliet is Norman O'Grady of Sutton, Dublin whose unnamed line-up was one of only five teams to earn more than £200,000 in Week 29. Norman had the top two in the Lancome Trophy, Mark O'Meara and Jarmo Sandelin, with David Gilford, Ronan Rafferty and Seve Ballesteros bringing the team's combined winnings up to £239,350.

So, good luck to all our leading managers and a special word to Kieran O'Toole, whose stomach is in a knot: hang on in there, it's nearly over.