It always causes us a bit of embarrassment when a non-holder of a Golf Masters tour card gets into the field for a real-life event and ends up four days later in the winners circle. We are left with a cheque for €100,000 and nobody to give it to. Thus we glossed over Malcolm Mackenzie's triumph in the French Open two weeks ago. Could we really be blamed for cutting him from our roster after some 500 tour events without a win? No doubt he will be back next year after a few words with the Tour Comiss

Heading in the same direction but still with some distance to go is 35-year-old Zoran Zorkic. Give his performances in recent years, the town of Humble, Texas, has been a most appropriate residence for the Yugoslav. Zorkic turned pro in 1989 and his official PGA earnings in the 13 years prior to last Sunday totalled $70,061.

So, when he negotiated a tricky two-putt to win the SAS Carolina Classic on the Buy.com tour and $81,000 he was understandably pleased and his wife "hysterical".

Of course, that would be loose change to Tiger Woods, who hopes to make this week's Memorial tournament his seventh consecutive victory in Ohio, a state where he has average winnings of $124,096 per round.

A similar gulf exists between our overall leader Columba Gavigan (€1,358,933 with "The Glenties Society") and bottom of the pile Alan Murray (€64,438 with "The Splashers"). If Aaron Baddeley could remember how he used to break 70 at the Volvo PGA and Gary Nicklaus triumphed at his daddy's tournament in the States, Murray could "do a Zorkic" this week and get upwardly mobile. We'll send a windcheater just in case.