When you have bemoaned your fate, when you quietly ponder the vagaries of slices, hooks, bad bounces and funky golfers, when you consider that period of temporary insanity which drove you to enter 38 teams in a competition, whose combined efforts didn't rate a single mention, it happens.
Three weeks after you have stopped calling the hotline for updates because you can no longer bear to find out the exact number of millions you are behind the leaders, when apathy has firmly taken root the unthinkable happens. Brendan Hynes appeared a little bemused when contacted to inform him of his success in the weekly competition.
Breathless as he raced to the phone he admitted: "You'd want to have seen me move when I heard I had a phone call from The Irish Times. I can't believe that I have finally won something. I had accepted the fact that I was simply no good at this as I watched my teams slipping a million and a half behind the leaders."
He had no problem in sharing his recipe for success following the success of his team, The Utilities. Volume! Having registered 38 teams, some on behalf of his wife and children - Brendan was adamant that the winning combination had nothing to do with the rest of his family - it is understandable that he must consult his files to identify the team in question.
In securing his prize of a fourball in Mount Juliet, Hynes relied on the some elder statesmen of the sport, all of whom enjoyed a high profile at the British Open, all finishing inside the top 20. Mark O'Meara (champion), John Huston (jt 11th), Des Smyth (jt 15th), Mark James (jt 19th), Vijay Singh (jt 19th), Curtis Strange (jt 19th) and Sandy Lyle (jt 19th) gave Hynes a winning total of £461,000, some £59,800 more than his nearest rival Chris Adam.
His only previous experience of Mount Juliet was as a spectator during the tenure of the Irish Open at the Kilkenny venue but is looking forward to a visit proper. We can exclusively reveal that Brian Hynes, Thomas Mooney and Michael Mooney should start cleaning their clubs.
Returning to the spotlight after a lengthy absence is Kieran O'Toole, third overall in last year's competition. Successfully rehabilitated after coming through therapy for the dreaded "transferitis" which wrecked last year's bid, O'Toole managed a creditable sixth place in the weekly competition for Week 20.
The highest new entries on the Overall Leaderboard are, in 21st place, the mysterious Glashedy Classics, no details known, and one slot further back, Conal Syron's Brownies Babies. The latter benefited from O'Meara's presence and were also grateful for contributions from Thomas Bjorn (£73,000), Lee Janzen (£29,200) and Richard Coughlan (£16,853) this week.
In a week when every one of the 18,076 team scored points, Galway's Rory Timlin successfully maintained his ambition, at least for another week, of remaining in last place. He will have been horrified on learning that Keith Nolan actually entered the Deposit Guaranty Classic in Mississippi and though the Bray golfer missed the cut, he received £500 in doing so making the sole contribution to `The Underdogs' weekly total.
Francis Howley (he withdrew injured), Cameron Clark, Wayne Levi, David Higgins, the injured Greg Norman and Brad Bryant enjoyed an enforced absence. This is only the second week in this year's competition that every team managed to earn some money, the other occasion was Week 11 when four teams amassed £500 each, The Underdogs being one of them.
This week attention turns to the Dutch Open at Hilversumsche and the CCS Charity Classic in Massacheusetts.
