THE ORIGIN
of the phrase “Cor blimey, O’Reilly”, much used by golf commentator Peter Alliss,
is unknown or at least uncertain. However, it is fairly sure that the O’Reilly in
question was an Irishman.
Had Mr
Alliss been at the microphone in recent weeks, he would have had every reason to
utter “Cor blimey, McGrane”, “Cor blimey, Clarke” or last Sunday, as he snaked in
a 30-footer to effectively keep his Spanish Open play-off chances alive, “Cor blimey,
Lawrie”.
It is
worth remembering that as registration for Golf Masters 2008 opened, Ian Woosnam’s
career total of 28 European Tour victories matched the combined haul of every Irish player currently active on the circuit.
Well,
it’s now Ireland 32 Woosnam 28 thanks to the efforts of Graeme McDowell,
Damien McGrane, Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie.
McDowell’s
win came before our official tee off at the Masters but Padraig Harrington earned
¤100,000
for his tied fifth finish at Augusta and the Irish winners in each of the
last three weeks have earned similar Golf Masters cheques.
It means
that managers who opted for teams of only Irish players have moved from figures
of fun to serious contenders for our €20,000 first prize.
They will struggle this
week if Harrington doesn’t show well at the Players Championship as all the others
have decided
to skip the Italian Open.
However,
they will have a nap hand next week with all of the Irish entered for the Irish
Open at Adare Manor.
Like
the Players, the Irish is a bonus tournament carrying 50 per cent extra prize-money
and it also boasts a ¤400,000 jackpot for a winning Irishman.
Omitting
Paul McGinley, and picking Harrington, McDowell, Rory McIlroy, McGrane, Clarke,
Lawrie and Gary Murphy, has been the optimum all-Irish selection so far and the
15 managers with that line-up are now tied for 103rd with earnings of €517,300.
That
leaves them €209,667 behind our new overall leader, Paul Sheehan.
The
Elm Park
man was responsible for one of the more famous moments
in Golf Masters history when he got Bob Estes on the other end of the phone after
the Texan’s efforts helped to make him our overall winner several years ago.
Estes
is without a Golf Masters card this year and has missed eight out of 12 cuts on
the PGA Tour.
Sheehan
remains a consistent performer and his leading team, The Nuts, includes McGrane,
Clarke and Lawrie and he excelled a couple of weeks back by bringing in Adam Scott just in time for his Byron Nelson Championship victory. That gives him an average
of one winner per week which is a mightily impressive strike rate. Ray Charles was
one of 11 managers to have both of our week four winners in one of his teams.
Lawrie
and Anthony Kim were joined in Declan’s Midnight Runners by Jason Bohn, Matthew
Goggin, Ricardo Gonzalez, Nick Flanagan and Luke Donald.
Their
combined winnings of ¤307,550 were enough to make Charles the winner of our weekly
prize of a fourball at Druids Heath and a Nike
Tiger Woods polo shirt.
e-mail:
golfmasters@irish-times.ie
