Greatest show in golf

Caddie's Role/Colin Byrne: Early Monday morning on the Royal St George's links and the brisk north-east wind brings an unusual warmth to the Kent coast. There are only caddies and Tiger out on the course at 7.30 a.m., trying to beat the British Open fairway traffic and get some course preparation in before the mob arrive.

MONDAY

Princes golf course runs alongside the 14th hole. I can see the qualifiers tantalisingly close to the main event. It will be as close as most of them get to the 132nd British Open.

"The brave boys will come in this way, you see," an older gentleman explained to some disinterested people.

TUESDAY

Outside the clubhouse is like an employment exchange. The world's caddies have gathered outside the locker-room waiting for their players to claim them. There is a hum of idle banter. The usual trouble finding "digs" and the exorbitant prices are high on the agenda.

Out on the course I overhear a member explaining the width of the 17th fairway to his inquisitive partner.

"The fairway would never be that narrow when you play the course, dear," she inquires. "Oh yes," he replies, "it is normally 13 yards wide at that point." After they pass I pace it. I make it 14 steps in width, they must set the 17th up easier for the pros.

WEDNESDAY

We get to play a practice round with a young former English amateur champion, qualifier Scott Godfrey from Cornwall.

He is nervous playing with my player, Paul Lawrie, but not as twitchy as he will be teeing it up for real with Ian Woosnam and Dudley Hart.

He has no aspirations to turn pro. Instead he wants to use his qualification in sports management to get involved with that side of the game.

THURSDAY

Showtime and the Kent coast provides real summer-time links weather. A warm south-west wind gusting up to 30 miles per hour and a course drying out quicker than a veteran caddie's face. We are fortunate as caddies that the weather has been mostly dry. As is the tradition of the Open, the porter is not well catered for. Indeed, the load-luggers are pretty much ignored when it comes to hospitality.

In all the years of coming to what is undoubtedly the greatest event from a competitive point of view, it is abysmal for facilities. The eaves of the clubhouse are your shelter in bad weather unless you can fit 150 cads into a 20-foot container. The R&A are stuck in a time warp when it comes to acknowledging the bag-people's basic needs.

Phil Mickelson, one of our playing partners, understandably has a problem with camera-toting spectators. He had a handful of incidents with such people on Thursday afternoon and doesn't quite get the R&A's lenient policy when it comes to not confiscating the cameras.

FRIDAY

The wind is not as strong, just as well with the pins that are set. There are a number of real beauties.Those who got away with good scores don't say much against the nature of the course and its set-up. The missed-cut crew have some words as they analyse their rounds outside the clubhouse. The consensus is the subtleties are so marginal the errant bounce makes it virtually impossible to get close to the pin and, in some cases, the green.

Having spent much of the year in America and Europe playing on courses that have reduced the game to numbers and hit-and-stop golf, the complaint at the luck of the bounce of links golf is an indictment of the mindless golf that most have become accustomed to playing. It takes a while for the imagination to come alive and wake-up to the challenge of bump and run.

SATURDAY

Early morning and the gangly, loping Australian Peter Fowler takes the tee alongside the local pro's son, who is playing with Peter as a marker. The 18th press bulletin of the day explains that Andrew Brooks, who played in the Walker Cup in 1997 at Quaker Ridge, New York, will accompany the Australian. They don't mention that the Poet Laureate of New Zealand will be carrying Peter's bag. He is hoping his man will play well but not too well, as he has an official dinner in Christchurch on Tuesday night and he wants to make his flight on Sunday from Heathrow.

SUNDAY

I painfully tune into an interview with Mark Roe on Talksport Radio. There is a sense of healing about the conversation with his old buddies Richard Boxhall and Robert Lee, on loan from Sky TV for the week. Mark, of course, is talking about the wrong card incident with Jesper Parnevik, which resulted in their disqualification. Mark would have been a contender on Sunday if he had taken care of his paper work as well as he took care of the golf course in the third round.

I've been captivated by the extensive coverage by the BBC. The eventual winner is not the face, name or personality that anyone, least of all the "Beeb crew" had envisaged hailing as winner of the Claret Jug. I still think of Strange when I hear Curtis, but I am going to have to get used to Ben. The Open has produced a worthy champion from the lower ranks of its long list of fame. What better way to promote the game. Curtis who? Ben Curtis, 132nd British Open Champion, that's who.