Shrewd transfers stand to top three

WITH 344 of our players either not in action at the Travelers Championship or, worse, missing the cut and costing their managers’ points, there was always a danger it would prove to be a rather unrewarding week. But, with the help of some shrewd transfer work, the top three on our overall leaderboard – Bryan Crowley (Carrigaline, Co Cork), Aideen Flynn (Greystones, Co Wicklow) and Kieron Hyland (Rathfarnham, Dublin) – survived the test to hold on to their places.

Bryan’s Gullane picked up a respectable enough 50 points, for the week that was in it, new recruits Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar and Pádraig Harrington his top earners, Mahan collecting five “best round” bonus points for his 61 on Sunday.

Aideen fared even better, Living Dolls collecting 73 points, the same trio of Mahan, Kuchar and Harrington featuring in her line-up. It was Brian Davis, though, who was her leading points earner, thanks to a share of fourth and a “best round” on Saturday. Aideen is now just four points behind Bryan.

Three of Kieron’s newcomers picked up just six points between them, but Bubba Watson, who tied for second, Fredrik Jacobson, joint eighth, and Mahan compensated for those let-downs, helping The Guns of Alvaro to a tally of 65 points.

No one could match the performance of Baldelli at the Travelers Championship, manager Helen Hedigan, of Mount Merrion, Co Dublin, winning herself that goodie bag of golf merchandise, including the world-renowned Fantasy Golf polo shirt, after Watson, Davis, Mahan, Kuchar, Jacobson and Harrington combined to bring home 111 points. That was enough to send the team up to 309th on the overall leaderboard — a couple more weeks like that and Baldelli will be troubling our chief contenders.

The key, of course, is to avoid hiring players who are having a tricky time of it form-wise, like the 88 players on our list on minus points. After an 82 and a 75 in Connecticut, Tommy Biershenk, not surprisingly, missed the cut – which means the man from South Carolina has failed to make it past the second round in all six of his Fantasy Golf appearances this season. That gives him a total of –12 points, which isn’t the best, two “ahead” of Mike Weir, Brendon Todd Kyle Thompson and Edward Loar.

At the other end of the scale, Harrington has now moved up to fifth on our highest points’ earning list after three top 20 and one top five finishes in his last four tournaments, the Byron Nelson Championship, St Jude Classic, the US Open and the Travelers. Those four results alone, incidentally, earned him $615,024.33.

Harrington is in action again this week at our counting tournament, the Irish Open at Portrush.