You know there are times when it would be nice to be a Golf Masters manager rather than an employee of the Tour.

Most Wednesday mornings spring to mind but leaving weekly deadlines aside, the best time to be a manager rather than an employee would be British Open week.

Friends, colleagues and family would all know well in advance that the "do not disturb sign" was metaphorically hanging from your neck and you could wallow in the BBC's coverage of the Open.

Truly you would be like a child in a candy shop.

Of course you would have the computer on and your Golf Masters teams close to hand. The BBC coverage is lengthy, advertisement free and generally superb but understandably their director is not as concerned as, for example, the 314 managers of Thomas Bjorn whether his out-of-bounds tee shot on the final hole will cause him to miss the weekend and at least a2,000 of our double prize money. In the end, it did.

The BBC website offered a novel game this year to complement the television coverage. Golf Lingo Bingo gave you the chance to print out a card featuring some of Peter Alliss's favourite sayings and when he used them in commentary you had to cross them out bingo-style.

With the Tour Commissioner in typically mean-spirited mood, we were not afforded two hours let alone two days in front of the television and thus the chance to shout "House" was never going to arrive but we thought we might incorporate the concept into this week's column.

So, as dear old Henry Longhurst used to say, Paul Dowling now has more teams on the overall leaderboard than all those Murnaghans put together.

In my day they didn't let you enter so many teams but that's the modern trend. Not sure it's for the long-term good of the game, Julian, what do you think?

Well, Peter, down in the Murnaghan study, Tony really has a devilishly difficult job. He's after the a20,000 first prize but quite apart from Mr Dowling, he has his own wife, son and daughter hot on his heels.

He has retaken the lead with his Scorpions selection but after selling Padraig Harrington and Jim Furyk to bring in Tiger Woods and Gary Murphy he only has two transfers left. He really doesn't have much room to work with.

Tell you what Julian, that Ian McGonigle in second place is a good, solid player. He's had the Tiger for quite a while. Reminds me of old Major Hannigan down at Worplesdon.

Must have won more monthly medals than I've had hot dinners.

I wouldn't discount Patrick Ryall's Timolin 3 or Teddy Tighe's Eureka either. They're the only teams in the top 50 with all 10 transfers remaining.

This tournament is not over yet.

What do you think, Kenneth? It's a tough one, Peter. I notice that only one team in the top 50 includes Vijay Singh whereas 15 have Tiger who will probably take a few weeks off at this stage.

Vijay might be the way forward.

Cor, blimey, O'Reilly, you might be right.