Vicarious celebrity proving a handful

Caddie's Role: Coming back to Ireland for our first event since the US Open victory has been a very warm experience for me. I have learnt a lot about the different kinds of handshake people give to convey their heartfelt congratulations. I must have grasped 1,000 hands, writes Colin Byrne

People I don't know offered a warm but hesitant grip. My caddying and playing colleagues were more sure, and to my pleasant surprise people on tour that I would have rare association with were probably the heartiest in their support. Ken Schofield, the European Tour executive director, was very appreciative of my modest role in the second US Open victory for Retief.

It was slightly embarrassing at times because some caddies were greeting me as if I had achieved the success, while the main man was standing quietly beside me as placid as ever, often getting only a cursory congrats.

I found myself repeating, tongue in cheek, that I could not have done it without him.

I began to understand how celebrities feel when their adoring fans are unleashed upon them. If it was a week of attention for me the bagman, imagine what Retief has been through these last few weeks. And imagine what Tiger Woods goes through daily. I can understand why he doesn't play so often.

It is all well-intentioned enthusiasm from people who are genuinely happy for you. Everyone likes a winner and many want a piece of you when you are successful. It's probably an indictment of my memory but I didn't realise I knew so many people.

We were supposed to play in Loch Lomond this week but Retief has decided to give himself a break. There will still be much to take care of at home, with media obligations and other business commitments.

His decision making is not only good on the golf course; it is equally lucid off the course. Knowing when to play and when to rest is sometimes the most difficult decision players have to make and not all get it right.

It is a testament to Goosen's concentration and tenacity that he went on to win the European Open at the K Club on Sunday. He had not touched his clubs since I had packed them at Shinnecock Hills on the Sunday night of his victory there. They had kept their form despite their lack of use.

When I unveiled the clubs for the first time in nine days, everything was as I had left it on Long Island. Normally Retief would rearrange the bag between events. He had considered not playing last week. He came to Ireland intending to compete but to practise less than he normally would. He never hit balls after he had finished his rounds in Straffan. He started warming up an hour before the round. It was very much a minimalist weekend.

This in itself shows the wisdom of the experienced player - understanding when to save energy and when to use it.

As anyone who was in Kildare any day last week can testify, the weather was, to say the least, trying. Even by Irish summer standards it was shocking. As soon as the umbrella was stashed after one shower it was needed again for the next. It was easier, if less comfortable, to keep the rain gear on at all times. Even though you were cooking during the dry spells, it was only a matter of time before the next cold squall arrived.

The wind fluctuated in ferocity. As the clouds darkened and the wind gathered strength, Retief, as ever aware, would accurately anticipate the next umbrella alert. Such is the heightened awareness of the US Open champion.

My boss is a self-confessed fair-weather golfer, but he also understands when he is in form. So not even the Irish summer could halt his winning run.

Naturally, you have to play well to shoot 13 under par around a tough course.What Retief does, and what, I believe, sets him apart, is grind pars out when he has not hit a brilliant shot. He doesn't agonise over a bad shot; he realises he is not a machine. He just focuses on the task of making a par from a potential bogey. He did plenty of that last Sunday.

A five-shot victory margin on a course that is a minefield of potential disasters does not reflect how close it could have been if Retief had not holed certain par putts.

My appreciation for the new course at the K Club grew as the week went on. It is a good golf course, in superb condition, and in my opinion better than the old course. If the greens were less perfect, the scoring would have been a lot worse.

The course is a shot-maker's course, not simply a long-hitter's course. The fairways are relatively generous and the greens are vast. But, as ever with a good course, the art is about subtle angles and how the difficulty of the shot changes depending on the angle you approach it from.

You can hit fairways at the Smurfit, but you have to shape the ball to get it close to the pin on the wide, sloping greens. It is a good test of the quality of a winner. Perhaps the weather was extreme last week, but the course would seem to be more suited to fair weather than to the wind and rain you tend to get in this part of the world.

The fact that a totally misplaced rock was removed from the middle of the long seventh fairway by the time we arrived there on Sunday is an indication that they are prepared to listen to outside advice and change accordingly.

It's hard to win. It's very difficult to back up a major win with a victory.

Retief's victory at the K Club is even more impressive given the post-US Open distractions.

I have learnt a little about "fame" and I managed to get the flag off the 18th flag stick for traditional keepsake this time. I didn't realise I would get to use my flag-extraction skills quite so soon after my failure at Shinnecock Hills.