Thongchai Jaidee, the first Thai golfer to win a European tour event, has been given a special invitation to next week's US Masters.

The call-up comes a year after Zhang Lian-wei became the first Chinaman to play at Augusta National.

Many people felt then that if an Asian player deserved to be there then it was former paratrooper Jaidee, who has finished in the top three of the Asian Tour for the last five seasons.

A place in the Masters completes a remarkable journey for the 36-year-old, who was a promising footballer until a wooden skewer was embedded in his foot in a freak accident.

During his recuperation he and some friends sneaked onto the Army Golf Club north of Bangkok. He was 16 when he first played nine holes, having initially tied the discarded head of a five-iron to a bamboo stick to hit shots.

He joined the army at aged 20 and did not turn professional until he was almost 30. Yet two years later, in 2001, he made the halfway cut at the US Open, as he did in the Open at St Andrews last year.