Colin Byrne recalls his few days in Orlando and discovers all is not as it seems in the Magic Kingdom.

It was Mickey Mouse time last week in Orlando, Florida. The inimitable ears are everywhere. As you make the turn into the Disney complex, Mickey's ears adorn the top of the Disney watertower.

The two courses for the Funai pro-am event, the Palm and Magnolia, are inside the Magic Kingdom grounds. Mickey's ears mark the teeing areas. The spectators paths are framed by Mickey's lugs.

But there was nothing Mickey Mouse about the hurricane watch. After the Nationwide event scheduled in northern Miami was cancelled on Wednesday, they were not taking any chances on the forecast force-five hurricane due to hit southern Florida. News programmes with headlines of "Wilma Watch" and "Waiting for Wilma" became standard viewing.

The courses at the capital of family holidays are remarkably removed from what I had imagined. I got to walk the courses before most players had arrived at Disney, so much of the wildlife had not taken cover in anticipation of the arrival of a mob of humans. If you are not familiar with courses in Florida, there is an abundance of alligators, which are visible when things are quiet. I was expecting them, but I was taken by surprise when I saw some deer grazing beside the 13th fairway on the Magnolia course.

Turkey buzzards the size of swans hang out high in the large pine and oak trees. I mistook some miniature, thin creatures for worms until they started rearing up and wriggling away from me; they were, of course, snakes. So it was quite a field trip for me straight off the plane from Ireland to see these tropical creatures in the lush surroundings.

It's near the year's end, and the location is a favourite for the players' children. It is a real family scene around the clubhouse, plenty of excited kids and more Mouse ears on display.

But as much of a playground that this event is for the players' families, it is a serious workplace for their bread-earners who are in grave danger of losing their playing rights for next year. For those who have secured their 2006 cards, it's Mickey Mouse.

For those on the edge it's as serious as an imminent hurricane. There is a palpable mix of pleasure and pain as those outside the top 125 start to look at the grim face of the end-of-year tour school straight in the eye.

Outside the caddie shack the reality of the fragile nature of professional caddying was all too apparent. There were many tour caddies glad to get the chance to work for an amateur over the two days that the amateurs play with the pros is this semi pro-am event. It costs those amateurs who do not get a sponsor's invitation $9,000 for the opportunity to maybe get paired with Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh or my man, Retief Goosen. Not only were the out-of-work tour caddies hooking up with amateurs last week, but they were also trying to make professional connections for next year.

One such partnership that had lasted over seven years came to an abrupt end about six weeks ago. I suppose it's much like it is for those of you involved in the precarious global business world, things can come to a sudden halt without much ceremony to accompany the termination of contracts.

As this long-time porter placed his man's clubs in the "trunk" of his car after the Boston event early in September, his player mentioned just before he closed the lid that things were a little stale between them and he was going to take a new caddie. No official resignation protocol, simply, "I need a change, see ya". They had shot 65 that day.

The caddie is still looking for a replacement player. Such is the degree of caddie competition on all tours, but particularly in the US, there is not much "shaking", as they say in the caddie shack.

We can all fall on hard times, but I was quite amazed to see veteran South African golfer Hugh Baiocchi working as the side-kick to on-course commentator Andy North, providing him with yardages. A menial task for a player of such renown. It wasn't a real job for him, of course, he was just hanging with his friend Andy for a few days. Hugh has played on the Seniors tour over here for almost a decade and played in Europe for a couple of decades before that. I could see the astonishment on his face as he went to pace off the distance Retief was hitting the ball off the tee. Obviously he had not realised just how far these top players hit the ball.

Another part-timer was Tiger Woods' caddie, called in for a special assignment last week. Tiger's college mate's week did not turn out as planned. What are the odds of missing the cut with the world's undisputed number one player who had only missed two cuts before last week in his professional career? High. But we were in Disneyland after all.

Tiger Woods and Mickey Mouse in the Magic Kingdom - sometimes the former reminds us he is not a golfing cartoon character who performs at will.