The heat is on for Golf Masters overall leader, David Maune. He has occupied top position for most of the last three months, but his advantage was cut in half this week and he now heads Roger Mullarkey's Twilight Zone by just over £60,000 with four weeks left to the end of our season.

Pat Corby has retained positions three and four with his Blackbirds 7 and Blackbirds 10 selections, while his Skylarks 10 have jumped two places to complete the top five.

"It's very difficult to say if I can hold on at this stage," Maune says. "It really depends on who plays in the next couple of weeks. I reckon most of the leading teams have two or three in for this week anyway."

Elementary, my dear David. Four of the top five teams have two players in the select field for the NEC Invitational. The exception is Corby's Blackbirds 7, which includes Padraig Harrington, Hal Sutton and Carlos Franco. Maune takes his chances with Colin Montgomerie and Steve Pate, Mullarkey has Montgomerie and Lawrie, Blackbirds 10 includes Harrington and Sutton and Skylarks 10 also has Montgomerie and Lawrie. Corby has the option of one last transfer for the two Blackbirds teams.

There's a lot of admiration in Golf Masters headquarters for Tom Hayes, rookie manager of the sixth-ranked Dunmore Swingers. In his first year on tour, he entered just two teams and is getting good value for his trouble.

"It's a bit of fun," Tom says. "The Dumore Swingers are going well and I'm on to the update line every Monday getting the scores - with a £10,000 prize, it's surely worth a phone call! These guys Corby, Maune and Mullarkey almost feel like old friends, and to be honest I think they have it between them at this stage."

Well it's never that simple. Hayes is unique amongst our top 10 in having Esteban Toledo and Jeev Milkha Singh in his line-up, and a couple of good weeks for either could really shake things up.

If you've ever been in the press room at a real tournament, you'll know what happens when an "unknown" appears on the leader-board. The official Tour Guide is consulted for some biographical details and if the player doesn't even feature there, he is brought in for interview and picked over by the hungry press pack. Thus it is always possible to write a report that makes your readers think you are incredibly knowledgeable about every golfer on the planet. American scribes who had never heard of Paul Lawrie could tell you by Sunday evening in Carnoustie that he had been Scottish Assistants champion in 1990 and if, to take a random example, John Mellor wins next week's European Masters, you're sure to read of his goal-keeping days with Sheffield Wednesday.

What do you do, however, with "No name given"? He's not in the media guide, or even the phone book, which makes it difficult to say much about our latest weekly winner who declined to leave any contact details when registering with the Tour. Our Man with No Name did pick up a Fistful of Dollars in Week 25 with David Toms winning in Colorado. High finishes in Munich for Padraig Harrington, Gary Orr and David Howell helped greatly in amassing a winning total of £310,000.

If the manager of Team 32645 calls the competition help-line and provides the correct PIN, he or she will win a four-ball in Mount Juliet.