We're beginning to think we'll have to send Tim Morris and Ray Charles to the Ryder Cup together because they're proving fairly inseparable in the final Golf Masters' run-in. Yes, Tim leads by a not inconsequential £62,000 but he's struggling to put daylight between himself and Ray, who outscored our leader again in week 24, if only by £500.
Ray, we're certain, can be heard taking Esteban Toledo's name in vain because he was utterly reliant on his bargain buy helping him chisel a little bit more into Tim's advantage at the top of the overall leaderboard.
Both managers had Wales Open winner Paul McGinley and Ian Poulter (who tied for 20th at the same tournament) in their line-ups but Tim had no one else in action so Toledo was the ace up Ray's sleeve. A good showing at the Buick Open by the Mexican boxer-turned-golfer would have made Ray's weekend but his man suffered a second-round knock-out, floored after missing the cut by a single stroke.
Avert your eyes Ray - we found a golf website (http://forecaster.thestar.ca/Torstar/PGA/) that listed Toledo in its "Who's Cold?" section (along with Chris Perry - grim news for Kevin Barry (see left) - and Mark Calcavecchia). "Where has he been," they asked, before commenting on his "flaws".
"Inconsistency has been his major nemesis since joining the tour," they said (to which Ray might reply "who are ya tellin'?"). "The once-natural athlete has also become too mechanical. Desperately needs a revived putting stroke. Time is not on his side anymore. He'll turn 40 in 2002." Let that be a warning to any managers planning their line-ups for next season - there's no golfing life beyond 40.
Kenny Perry got a mention in the website's "Who's Hot?" section, not surprising seeing as he won the Buick Open last weekend. (For those who have any transfers left you might be interested to know that Chris DiMarco and Scott Verplank were also labelled "hot" by the website tipster).
A bit like the Wales Open it proved to be a damp squib of a weekend for most of last week's top-10 managers with only Tim and Ray topping the £100,000 earning mark. Of the current leading top 10 only Enda Costello, up from 17th to ninth, outscored the top two, picking up £122,827 from the Wales Open. Down from fifth to seventh is Tom Higgins but he's probably happy just to be still alive in Golf Mastering terms after only one of his players - Andrew Oldcorn (who picked up £7,250 in Wales) - reported for duty at the weekend.
From the ridiculous to the . . . James Gill of Cabinteely in Dublin will soon be off to Powerscourt, Co Wicklow, with three of his pals after topping the weekly leaderboard with Last Chance, one of 2,809 teams to number McGinley amongst their ranks, one of 69 to employ Kenny Perry and one of a mere baker's dozen to have both week-24 winners. Add in Padraig Harrington's joint sixth finish at the Buick Open and Stephen Ames' share of 14th in America and you have the bulk of James' fourball winning total - £286,744.
So then, we're off to the USPGA. Maybe it doesn't have quite the same prestige as the US Masters or British Open but in Golf Masters' land it's no less important, simply because it also carries double the regular prize money. Last chance saloon for Tim Morris's pursuers? Maybe . . . we'll see.
