CADDIE'S ROLE:The constant rain interruptions, which were such a feature at Bethpage, put added pressure on the pros, writes COLIN BYRNE.

SO THE USGA have now earned the lofty exclusive status of the Green-Jacketed gentlemen from Augusta; they too can defy the elements. It would appear nothing could stop them from completing the 109th US Open. It was not the carefully chosen land by the original course designer AJ Tillinghast alone that let the deluge seep through the Bethpage Black public course on Long Island, New York.

It was the resources the United States Golf Association, from squeegees to towels, threw at whatever was dumped on them that made the course playable. If the tournament was anywhere else you would have seen the players lifting their balls, cleaning them and propping them up on a lush piece of grass.

As is Major tradition no such activity is entertained by the authorities. It is, however, very much on the minds of caddies, players and anyone else with planes to catch somewhere else on Sunday night. Why don’t they like players placing the ball in a golf tournament? For the same reasons as they don’t like to see players with their bags on a trolley. It is tradition; it is how the game should be played. You only lay your hands on the golf ball when you are taking a penalty, on the green or finished the hole.

No major will be decided with players placing their ball. Another reason is that it adds half an hour on to the already interminably slow rounds.

So you have had all the excitement of the US Open build-up and you are looking forward to a morning time in the first round and you get to the course and the rain is bucketing down and the course looks like the scene of the US Open Regatta.

You know you are going to have a long day waiting. The way the authorities deal with delays is they keep you on site and on standby until the end of the world if that is what it takes to complete the event. Proximity of accommodation to the golf course can aid your lingering cause in the delay situation. If you are close enough you can hop home and wait for a call from your caddie with updates. Players have the best parking so access is easier.

The caddies’ lot usually makes it a little trickier to get back to the course on time if there is a sudden break in the bad weather and play resumes. Humans are territorial and with constant long delays such as they had in Bethpage last week, you will have noticed the lairs that caddies inhabit in order to make the lurking a little more comfortable.

In a game of routines and careful planning the standby game is a huge mental challenge for professional golfers. The word trickles back to the locker-room, players’ lounge and caddie shack that there is another decision being made in another hour.

So you pour another cup of coffee and nibble on another doughnut and peruse another newspaper and glance at the TV screen with the weather channel keeping you guessing about what time you are going to tee off.

By the time you get out on the course you’ve got coffee breath, a good stubble on your chin after the 4.30am rise and the last thing you are ready for is the first round of the US Open; more likely a siesta and a shower.

If you are not both flexible by nature, and rigid with resolve, professional golf may not be the game for you. Despite the necessity for routine in the sport you need a huge element of pliability, especially for occasions like last week’s rain delays.

Golfers have a strong propensity to grumble. The often seemingly indiscriminate nature of the game can get us whingeing like babies. So I listened to some interviews from post-early-round competitors who endured the endless delays and finally got out on the course in the worst of the conditions.

According to one it was like a two-shot advantage last week to be on the right side of the draw. That’s like a 10-shot advantage to us amateurs, to put it in perspective. Some also mentioned that when they hit three woods into the bunkers they got plugged lies. Naturally after such extensive rainfall the ball was picking up mud which adds a further variable in to the decision-making process. You can make an educated guess about which way the ball will go depending on where the mud is on the ball, this is an art not a science.

After a stunted three and a half days of play the hands-on New York mob got to watch and commentate on golf till dark on Sunday. It sounded like an intimidating atmosphere with a vocal reaction to every shot on the beastly Black course.

It looked like the unravelling had begun with the surprise outside leader after three rounds. As the siren sounded for the end of play at 8pm on Sunday Ricky Barnes had hooked his tee shot into some dense fescue grass off the second hole. Darkness had fallen at the perfect time for the leader as he looked happy to be returning to the sanctuary of the clubhouse.

Bethpage Black is best faced by a novice leader in the less frenetic atmosphere of a relatively tranquil Monday morning. The nervy player could almost fool himself into thinking it was a practice round or at least a more sociable round than the last loop in a US Open final round.

The scene was probably not as the USGA had envisaged yesterday afternoon in Bethpage. The density of the sodden rough made up for the unprecedented receptiveness of the US Open greens. No matter what mother nature threw at the guardians of the game in America they ended up with a worthy winner in Lucas Glover – just a little later than anticipated.