Alas, poor Christophe, we knew him well

The ups and downs of a caddie's life. Perhaps it was the pressure of public opinion that finally led to the sacking of the mysterious French caddie Christophe, criticised for his part in Jean van de Velde's Barry Burn debacle at the British Open in Carnoustie last July.

Whatever the reason, it meant a late call-out to Akron, Ohio last week for Graeme Heinrich, who was busy traipsing around the Monarch's course in Gleneagles preparing the yardage book for the Scottish PGA, when he received a call from Van de Velde. Jean was looking for a new caddie, and Graeme, the number's man on tour, was his new choice. So from the relative obscurity of the £250,000 Scottish event, Graeme found himself catapulted into the $5million World Invitation event.

But life is like that for caddies. You can't take anything for granted. For instance, as the drama was unfolding at the BMW tournament in Munich a couple of Sundays ago there was a logistical problem of its own developing in the caddie shack. With Andrew Coltart the surprise captain's choice and the late surge by Padraig Harrington to make the European Ryder Cup team by right, problems arose for those caddies who had assumed that they would be Brookline bound. The invitational in Akron was made up of 41 players from the Ryder Cup teams of Europe and the US and the Presidents' Cup teams of the US and the Rest of the World. So, naturally, the "latecomers" to the European team had to alter their plans after the final round of the BMW and make the trip to Ohio in a hurry. A couple of caddies with a bit of foresight had tickets for Akron bought well in advance - but didn't need them as it turned out. Bernhard Langer's caddie Pete Coleman was obviously confident Mark James would include the experienced German in his side. The plane tickets turned out to be a wasted gamble by Coleman, when James went for the youthful Coltart.

Likewise, Jonas, Robert Karlsson's caddie, looked to have made a wise choice when he booked his passage to Akron after his man shot a final round of 65 in Munich. Surely he was on the team. It was Jonas's bad luck that Harrington was hanging on for dear life, culminating in a six-footer for par on the last hole and another redundant air ticket. If two caddies were disappointed that meant there had to be two other caddies pleasantly surprised. Richard Roberts, who works for Coltart got working on his transfer to Akron while the stunned golfing world were reeling from the James's announcement. As luck would have it Pete Coleman used his influence with an airline to transfer his ticket to Dave McNeilly, Harrington's caddie. Mystery surrounded the non-appearance of the private jet that was supposed to leave Munich after the Ryder Cup team had been announced. The sponsors cancelled the jet on Sunday, which was to depart for Akron carrying the European players who had played in Munich. Someone cynically suggested that it was probably cancelled as soon as the Germans realised that there wasn't going to be one of their own on board. Apparently there was another reason, but it still hasn't been revealed. When they caddies got to Akron, the found they had arrived in the land of milk and honey. With last place here worth $25,000 and neon lights bordering the boulevard from hotel to golf course, it was a no lose situation. The winning caddie here won almost twice as much as the winning player in the Scottish PGA. In all the events that I have worked at over here, this was the first one that actually took the toter into consideration. With preferential car parking to catering all day long, it was hard to drag yourself away from the sumptuousness of the caddie shack for a day's looping.

The organisers arranged an air-conditioned marquee with a breakfast breakfast buffet in the morning and lunch in the afternoon and perfectly chilled post round beers. I chuckled to myself thinking that there are people doing important jobs and all I have to do is carry a bag for a few hours and lavish excesses upon myself for the rest of the day. To bring a balance to all the recent banter about money and greed and prestigious events, consider Andy Martinez. Andy caddies for Tom Lehman on the US tour. After the PGA at Medinah, his ninth event in 11 weeks in a successful attempt to seal a Ryder Cup place for Lehman (he was a captain's pick), Andy made his way to California for the US Amateur. He wasn't going to play but caddie. Another week's work, when he was long due a break. Andy caddied for the 20-year-old David Gossett at Pebble Beach. Gossett, under the Tour caddie's direction, won the Amateur. Andy is a veteran on tour and worked for Johnny Miller in his glory days of the 1970s. Andy has been grateful for the pleasure and success he has got out of the game over the years and "wanted to give something back". This attitude received a mixed reaction from his colleagues: "Checking out Pebble for the US Open next year?" or "you must be crazy on your week off, there's no money in it" were some of the comments.

When he left the caddie shack saying that "it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my career", his comment fell on deaf ears.