Rory wins quest to finish bottom of Masters' table

There we were, marvelling at Ciarán Devenney's yield from the final week of the 2007 Golf Masters, his line-up bringing home …

There we were, marvelling at Ciarán Devenney's yield from the final week of the 2007 Golf Masters, his line-up bringing home a353,167 from our last two tournaments, when we noted his county of residence is the same as that of Rory Timlin, Terry Howard and Paddy Barry.

Rory, Terry and Paddy would quite probably look through Ciarán's line-up - Soren Hansen and Philip Archer (first and joint second at the Mercedes Benz Championship), Zach Johnson and Mark Calcavecchia (tied for second at Tour Championship), and Padraig Harrington, who brought in another a28,000-plus from the same tournament - and weep.

Not with envy, mind, more horror.

In that sense, then, they might have felt Ciarán let Galway down a bagful, their abhorrence no doubt magnified when they hear Ciarán has won himself a fourball in Druids Glen, not to mention a Nike windvest.

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All year the trio have been striving to win as little Golf Masters' money as possible in their quest to finish bottom of the competition, an honour for which both Rory and Terry have battled before.

Rory, our Salthill maestro, has prevailed again - spectacularly so.

He didn't even need to use a transfer, his original line-up faring as poorly as he hoped they would, largely because, between them, they barely struck a ball in anger in a Golf Masters' tournament all year.

The 'victorious' line-up: Fred Couples (a22,000 earnings), John Cook (a13,500), Craig Perks (a4,250), Peter Senior (a1,250), Michael McGeady (a0), Nick Price (a0) and David Duval (a0). Total earnings for the Golf Masters' year? a41,000.

Little wonder Rory dubbed them The Underdogs, as he has labelled his previous 'victors'.

Rory, then, held off the challenge of fellow Galwegian Terry, with Peter Dwyer of Kilmacud coming even closer to taking the crown, his 'Try for Last Place' line-up just missing out on their target by a single position.

What do we say?

Congratulations?

Manager Team Earnings

1 Rory Timlin The Underdogs 41,000 2 Peter Dwyer Try for Last Place 64,083

3 Terry Howard Howard's Hackers 166,825

4 Gus Fitzpatrick Gussie's Madness 253,367

5 No Name Given Team No 15578 272,333

6 David Nolan Team No 15635 338,071

7 Tom Byrne Top tips 417,506

8 Mark McLoughlin Dentist 1 425,538

9 No Name Given Team No 10344 440,588

10 Paddy Barry Team No 15497 447,455

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan

Mary Hannigan is a sports writer with The Irish Times