Tour crew left to ponder on things beyond our control

CADDIE'S ROLE:IT RESEMBLED an early morning scene on the school outing last Monday at Shanghai's Pudong airport as players, caddies, officials, television personnel and others associated with the European and Asian Tours queued in orderly fashion to check in for the China Eastern Airlines direct flight to Jeju island in Korea.

Some had made the journey the previous evening from Suzhou to Shanghai and enjoyed a night in the entertainment capital of China, the others made a weary, drawn-out trip from Suzhou that morning to the airport: thus the sleepy and serene atmosphere at check-in area F at Pudong.

Those of us who had made the seven-minute 40km trip on the unbelievably rapid Maglev train from the centre of Shanghai to the airport were still a little taken aback at the snail’s pace of the check-in line compared to the 431km per hour speed we reached above the rice paddies of the province in the magnetically levitated train that services the airport. The blur below was the China of old, with rickshaws and bicycles and slow rattlers that used to make 40km journeys a day’s work.

Whatever conversations started in the queue were largely related to the turmoil in Europe due to the volcanic eruptions and air travel disruptions. We all realised how fortunate we were to be on this north east Asian leg of the European Tour and that if we were scheduled to be playing on mainland Europe last week, then we were likely to have been grateful to be moving on any form of transport that was operational.

Naturally there was a hubbub of speculation about what was going to happen to us all when we tried to get back home or to Seville this week. The European Challenge Tour event scheduled for Morocco last week was cancelled and most of us were trying to figure out the likelihood of getting to Spain or if there would be a tournament there.

For those of us who were around for the InterRail era of the European Tour it was an appropriate moment to set the younger players and caddies straight about the reality of travel in the 1980s; train, bus, overcrowded car or hitch-hiking were the standard modes of transport back then. Most of us couldn’t afford to fly. An important difference, of course, was that if you were at your venue by Tuesday evening you were probably early. In the modern era the practice range can often be crowded on a Monday morning.

We expect to be instantly transported to the next driving range on the schedule even if it is continents away.

Back then you had to experience basic transport at some stage of your journey. Today we are sheltered from the raw experience of travel. The volcanic eruptions in Iceland have forced us all to take a measured look at how we rush around the world oblivious to the distance or cultures we blindly transcend in a race to the next destination.

We made an extremely bumpy landing in Jeju island with wet and windy weather to welcome us. Jeju is a small island south of mainland Korea in the East China Sea, which is a favoured holiday destination for Koreans and in particular, honeymooning couples. It is referred to as the Korean version of Hawaii. Being a volcanic island it is famous for its rock, its women and its unpredictable weather.

In the days of old the women on Jeju used to hunt and forage and put food on the table while the menfolk looked after the homestead. The women were particularly good pearl divers. As is the norm in Asia, the caddies are, almost uniquely, women. This is an Asian standard and not just a legacy of the era of manual labouring amongst the women of the island. The island’s final claim to fame didn’t let us down last week during the Ballantines Championship. From fog, rain and a howling bitter north wind, the resemblance to Hawaii deserted Jeju and reminded me more of home.

The weather was to cause a major gripe in the locker-room with those of us who got the late first round tee times feeling particularly sorry for ourselves as fog meant the first round morning players didn’t complete their rounds till the evening in benign conditions and the others had to battle around 36 holes the next day in a four-club wind with a mere 40-minute break between rounds. It was an extremely hilly course so fitness was put to the test on the second 18.

It was decided on Friday the tournament would be reduced to 54 holes. The decision was taken largely due to the fact changing flights back to Europe and in particular Seville was not an option given the flight disruptions in Europe.

The main problem with losing a round was it made it more unlikely the players who played in the severe wind of Friday would challenge the lead. It was an extreme case of the luck of the draw, but the eventual winner, Marcus Fraser from Australia, still had to bring in the score despite being on the “right” side of the draw.