When Eamon Murray and Ronan Griffey were growing up around the corner from each other in Dundrum, even playing the odd round of golf together, we doubt, somehow, that they imagined a few years down the line they'd be gladiators squaring up to each other in the Colosseum that is the Golf Masters. "It's a small world," confirmed Eamon yesterday, after meeting up with Ronan at the prize-winning presentation.

By Sunday evening Eamon was a20,000 the richer, but felt like he'd done 15 rounds with Maximus in the process. Having gone in to the final week of the competition just over a222,000 ahead of Ronan, his closest challenger, he endured a weekend that was excruciating at times, as the Wicklow Wanderers ambled ever closer to Eamo's Heroes.

Both managers had Hunter Mahan and Justin Rose in their line-ups, so they cancelled each other out, while two of Eamon's players and one of Ronan's weren't in action at the weekend. That, then, left it as a battle between Eamon's Rory Sabbatini, Andres Romero and Raphael Jacquelin and Ronan's Soren Hansen, Mark Calcavecchia, Padraig Harrington and Markus Brier - the latter quartet needing to dramatically outscore Eamon's trio for Ronan to have any chance of bridging the gap.

They nearly did it too. Hansen won the Mercedes Benz Championship and Calcavecchia tied for second at The Tour Championship, with Brier bringing in another a10,500 - meanwhile Eamon's Romero and Jacquelin won just a7,500 between them. By then both men, in their respective living rooms, had concluded this was all down to Sabbatini v Harrington.

"Mr Sabbatini may not be Mr Popular with his fellow pros, but he's got a friend for life in me," said Eamon, after the South African's final round of 68 gave him a top 10 finish at East Lake, while Harrington's 73 saw him drift back to joint 11th. Eamon, then, who won just under a170,000 less than Ronan in our final week, prevailed with a winning margin of a53,177.

"At one stage a friend rang me and said I was only about a20,000 behind," said Ronan, "but I knew I needed Harrington to come good and for Sabbatini to fade away - it wasn't to be. But if you'd offered me a guarantee of second place last Thursday I would have grabbed it," he said, having held off the challenge of Paul Dowling, who finishes in third. Ronan, then, wins a7,000 for his runner-up spot and promised us not to do anything sensible with it. "We'll use it for nonsense," he vowed. Paul wins a3,000.

Jim Murray and John Griffey have both been promised pints by their sons, reward for their co-management of the leading teams. "My father would text me at three in the morning to tell me how I was doing on the leaderboard, after his paper was delivered," said Eamon. "When I was in Tenerife and then the States my father would ring me around 7.30 in the morning to update me on the Golf Masters' news, time zones didn't come in to it," laughed Ronan, who conceded that if it wasn't for his father's prompting he'd have forgotten to have entered the competition in the first place.

Congratulations, then, to Jim and John (and to Eamon and Ronan). See you all next year.