GOLF:WE HAD a notion that week 20 had proved less than profitable for the vast majority of our managers when we received word on how Fantasy Golf HQ's own test team on the competition's website had fared at the Czech Open and the Wyndham Championship.

Put it this way: the seven players who took the week off actually earned us more (zero points) than the three who turned up for duty (-1).

Two of the trio missed the cut, and the third, John Parry, managed a mere share of 51st in the Czech Republic. And with that our team tumbled out of the top 7,000.

Granted, nobody is actually managing the line-up and not a transfer has been made, largely because of that pernickety rule preventing employees from taking part in the competition. But still, we couldn’t but be pained by our team finishing Week 20 with less points than they’d started it.

We were far from alone, though, even our leading managers had a week they’d like to speedily forget. Third-placed Enda Kelly, for example, picked up just four points, with Deirdre Kelly, in fourth, managing just the seven.

Not too surprising, really, in light of the fact that only 23 of our players were in action in week 20, and nine of them missed the cut.

Among that group was none other than Miguel Angel Jimenez, who features in our top four teams. Last week we noted his popularity in the transfer market, the fact that he’d designed the course on which the Czech Open would be played somewhat adding to his appeal. So much for that: after a 76 and a 77 he missed the cut.

Top 10 placings for Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk and Camilo Villegas at the Wyndham Championship and for Damien McGrane at the Czech Open made them the only players on our list to earn more than 100 points in Week 20. Avril Webster’s line-up featured three of the quartet (all but Villegas), which went some way towards making Hubbies Hackers our leading team of the week with 901 points.

That’s a tally that our leader Lewis Babbage could only envy. He had just the two two players active in week 20, and one of them – his captain, Jimenez – missed the cut. Shane Lowry (top 20 at the Czech Open) saved the day.

Darragh Halpin in second could, though, only close the gap by three points, Retief Goosen (top 20 at the Wyndham) his sole scorer of note.

With so few points picked up there were no significant changes at the top of our overall leaderboard, the top six all staying in the same position. Lewis leads Darragh by just 157 points but their pursuers aren’t too far behind either, eight of our teams now through the 2,000 points barrier.

Una Kelly, meanwhile, has taken our monthly prize (an overnight stay and a round of golf at one the country’s top resorts) – despite not having a single player in action in week 20. It was that kind of week.

Next in the schedule, in the penultimate week of the competition, is the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and The Barclays in New Jersey. We’ll trust that Fantasy Golf HQ’s team will fare a little better than -1 points, but we wouldn’t bet on it.

* To access the competition on our website (irishtimes.com/fantasygolf) each week you need to enter a pin code – this week’s code is ‘rainmaker’.