O ye of little faith. If Tiger Woods has been irked by recent press coverage of his supposed slump, what would he make of the 21 Golf Masters managers who dumped him on the eve of the 100th Western Open?

Managers spend much of their time trying to figure out Woods's playing schedule, complaining about his €6.5 million price tag and scheming to extract the most from the remaining €6 million in their budgets.

So armed with the knowledge that he had already won three times on tour this year, his repeated assurances that there wasn't much wrong with his game, his undisputed world number one ranking and the fact that he was going for a third victory in the Western on a Cog Hill course that he likes, why do they decide to dispense with his services? Answers are few but nobody paid a heavier price than Pat Corby, who reckoned that four of his teams would be better off without Woods. Tom Boucher came close, dismissing Woods from three of his selections. Both deserve to spend a few uncomfortable hours in the run-up to next week's British Open wondering whether they should be bringing Tiger back in again - if they have any transfers left.

On the credit side, two managers hired Woods ahead of the Western. Noel Kelly's Lucky 7 and Sean Ghent's Leixlip Woods are the teams in question and because we're feeling flush after a new batch of Cutter & Buck arrived in the office, we'll send each something to wear on the golf course.