CADDIE'S ROLE:Oosthuizen's caddie blazed the trail for black South Africans, writes COLIN BYRNE

WINNING A tournament often builds a strong bond between a player and his caddie. Some players feel they are luckier with a certain caddie, others have the idea their preferred bagman brings out the best in them. A good caddie is to his player whatever it is that player thinks him to be.

Realistically, a caddie the player is comfortable with under pressure is what keeps a player/caddie relationship going.

What a comfort it must have been for Louis Oosthuizen to have had Zach Rasego by his side in St Andrews a couple of weeks ago as he cruised to his first major victory at the tender age of 26. It’s unlikely he will win another event with such a convincing margin, such are the subtleties of victory at the highest level of the sport.

Zach started caddying for Louis in South Africa in 2004. They are now in the seventh year of a clearly successful partnership.

The average caddie/player relationship normally lasts three to four years. It is obvious, then, Zach and Louis have something special going on the course.

Success is largely what maintains a good union, but naturally this must be combined with mutual respect. When I asked Zach what had kept the two together for already twice the average shelf-life of a porter/player life expectancy, respect was the first word he mentioned.

South Africa is a very different country now than it was when Zach left it to get his first taste of European democracy in the late 1980s. Louis is a product of the modern South Africa. That he chose to mention Nelson Mandela’s birthday as the opener to his acceptance speech for the claret jug a couple of weeks ago was an immediate indication of that. Louis developed in an era that accepted everyone as equal no matter what their skin colour.

I remember going to South Africa for the first time before Mandela was released from jail. The caddies at the course I went to were all black and were mostly huddled in a shack that looked more suitable for animals than humans. They were waiting for a white guy, like me, to come to release them from their shed. Life was very different then.

Naturally, having caddied for Retief Goosen, I returned to his native land on numerous occasions, often for the end-of- year jamboree at Sun City, the elitist, 12-man Million Dollar Challenge played at the Gary Player-designed Sun City course.

This was a place where the caddie had a caddie. We were assigned our own local, black caddies to assist us, carrying the bag everywhere apart from during the four rounds of competition. What a luxury.

But also it was a little taste of how life was for the white man in southern Africa, even if he was a caddie. I met Zach there on my first visit, he was making yardage books for the event. It is where he learnt about golf.

He lives in a tribal village not far from Sun City called Ledig. It is a settlement for natives from Bophuthatswana who were resettled there in the old days of forced removals. The exclusive complex of Sun City was created, and thus Zach and many of his neighbours ended up servicing the resort. Zach was not a golfer, but through the Gary Player caddie initiative there he became a caddie. His first venture outside of South Africa was in 1988 when he went to the British Open to work for Player. He had many brief sorties since then until he became a permanent fixture on the European Tour with Louis in 2004.

If you had seen how the caddie’s lot was in South Africa 15 years ago you would not have imagined any of these local caddies could have broken free from the shackles of bag-toting in their native land. The opportunity to travel was an impossible concept, and for many the idea of caddying around their country on the Sunshine Tour was as far as they could possibly imagine.

Gradually caddies from the townships started to drift over to Europe with South African players for whom they had caddied locally. It was a pioneering move for many, as they had not been exposed to such travel in the past. Zach had had a taste of foreign travel in the late 1980s: he was possibly the first to pave the way.

I recall when Zach, Solly, Justice, Philip, Reggie and other black South Africans came over to the European Tour about 10 years ago, and they naturally needed some guidance to survive. They learnt the art of caddying in Europe and, more importantly, surviving on a budget.

Like all newcomers to an established group, there was resistance. I know it wasn’t always easy for them in the early days and they may not have felt that welcome. Zach was voted on to the committee of the European Tour Caddies Association last year which was a mark of the approval of the rest of us toters for black South African caddies.

When Louis Oosthuizen romped to victory at the home of golf in the 139th British Open a few weeks ago it marked more than the arrival of a new young champion: it was a seminal moment for a caddie named Zach Rasego from a tribal village in the northwest of South Africa.

All of us bagmen have had to pave a permanent way for ourselves over the past few decades, and none more so than the black caddies from South Africa.

Louis and Zach’s victory in St Andrews is a testament to the power of a healthy player/caddie relationship based on understanding and respect regardless of your background.