Clash of cultures in caddie shack

Caddie's Role: The European Tour is truly a global concern these days. The events held on European soil represent only about two thirds of the season's outings. You could ply your trade in about 15 non-European countries as a caddie "in Europe", writes Colin Byrne.

The main batch of porters has historically come from the British Isles. Even now, Europeans are poorly represented in the caddie shack. With the end of apartheid in South Africa and the subsequent downturn in southern African economies there has been a huge influx of caddies from that part of the world. The Australians and New Zealanders have been caddying over here for years.

Many of them are good golfers, some have got an interest in the game but more so an instinct for survival. For the younger southern African golfers, fellow countrymen as caddies are welcome for homesick novices dealing with Europe for the first time.

The golf tour works under a simple system of capitalism, supply and demand. The objections to this new breed are many. Some have been accused of "working cheap". However cheap it may sound to the disgruntled European caddie, in South African rand the wages are a relative fortune.

Who should we blame, the new economic refugees or the cheap players who employ them? Maybe they do a better job than their traditional counterparts? The market decides.

Caddies by their very nature have always been living close to the edge. We are mavericks, outsiders and loners. We are attracted to the tour by the lure of irregular "office hours" and the excitement of exotic destinations. Not to mention the carrot of potential success.

With the elevation of status of the modern professional caddie we are increasingly under scrutiny. But it hasn't changed the core nature of us bag-toters. Most of us are doing it for the same reasons as we did decades ago, but for a little extra loot.

We are the original global workers, benefiting and taking advantage of the freedom of movement in the modern economic world. I personally have profited greatly from my travels. I consider as some of my closer friends those who I have met through my work and have had a better chance at understanding foreign cultures.

The tour is still an all-British affair in terms of strategy and decision making. It may well be called the European Tour, but the language is strictly English when it comes to deciding the direction of the tour.

As a gesture to the Australasians and Southern Africans, who have been members of the tour for decades, they have been recently granted the right to be represented on the players' committee. This, of course is a welcome concession by the tour. Before, they could be members, but had no real voice in their destiny.

Maybe this is where the protective nature of some English caddies has come from. In recent publications there have been grievances voiced about these "outsiders". It must have slipped by the aggrieved ones that so many events are played outside Europe these days. Not to mention many of these Southern Africans the "caddie police" are referring to are British passport holders.

Surely it's time to let go this supposed inherent right to keep the tour British. In the late 1980s and early '90s, a trip to the US for a caddie used to be a perilous one from an immigration point of view. The US porters were not happy with the idea of foreign players bringing their foreign caddies over with them. I remember being stopped by an immigration official on my way from the ninth green to the 10th tee in a practice round for the PGA at Inverness. A disgruntled American caddie had alerted Immigration there were "illegal caddies taking their rightful bags". Sandy Lyle defused the situation with a phonecall to a friend who had influence in the Immigration Department.

Today, the situation in the US has turned full circle. A few weeks ago in Washington the head of the US caddies association left an entrance pass in my player's locker for me to gain access to the course having heard I was having difficulty getting into the course due to security measures.

These newcomers to the European tour add flair to our business. The convergence of global culture on the fairways of the European Tour is a great opportunity to progress. Vigilante work by the officious caddies amongst us is not the way to deal with the situation.