Colin Byrne Caddie's RoleThe 27th Nedbank Golf Challenge was held in the Sun City resort last week. It had traditionally been an event that the world's best golfers aspired to playing in at the end of the year as an indication of how well they had played during the year as well as being a little junket for golfers and their families to sample some of the finest hospitality that the vast continent of Africa has to offer.

For us porters it is viewed as a "caddie major": there is guaranteed big last-place prize-money, we are given the royal treatment at the Oliver Thambo International airport on arrival, we are transported to the Sun City resort some two hours away by road and escorted to a free room at the hotel on arrival.

As if this is not lavish enough for those of us who remember hitch-hiking to events in previous decades, we get assigned our own caddies for the week. This means we do not actually have to do what we are qualified to do, hump the golf bag around the golf course all day long.

Instead we just lurk around as advisors, all of a sudden the manual labour was eliminated from our job description and all we had to do was recite numbers and offer the odd bit of advice to our employers while our caddies did all the hoof work.

Although it is the wind-down to the year for us world travellers, the Million Dollar, as it used to be called, is the biggest golfing event that South Africa proudly hosts at what is the start of their summer in the southern hemisphere. It is a traditional event on the sporting calendar that marks the start of their sporting season.

With five natives and one semi-local in Justin Rose it was a bumper year for the proud South Africans. Ernie Els, Rory Sabbatini, Retief Goosen, Charl Schwarztel and the triumphant Trevor Immelman kept the patriotic crowd enthused till just before sunset last Sunday.

It is a week dominated by corporate hospitality and patrons wear team colours each day. So when you approached the ninth green for the first time and looked up at the big spectator stand to the right of the green, to the untrained eye you could be forgiven for thinking that the stand was empty because everyone is wearing the same coloured shirt sitting in that stand.

There is no such thing as a free ticket to the Nedbank Challenge, you show your company allegiance by sporting company logo as you are munching the complimentary food and slugging the free flowing drinks.

On top of the mollycoddling we get, us caddies are included in all the evening functions that are laid on for distinguished guests during the week: the Pro-Am Ball which is a televised affair held on the Wednesday night is probably the least interesting function from a porters point of view because the 12 players, whose views we know all too well, are interviewed on stage.

The beach party held on Thursday night at the valley of the waves is possibly the most dangerous as this is the most festive evening with a gang of revellers and a free bar all night long. The most ethnic evening, and the event that gives the feeling of being somewhere completely different, is the Boma Braai which is a more exclusive affair held outside the protected environment of Sun City on a game reserve. We get collected in suitable range rover transportation and brought out to the bush for a sophisticated evening held in very natural surroundings.

The problem this year was the week was hampered by rain and frequent thunder storms. As the sun was setting dark clouds were looming and Conrad Gallagher who provides the mouth watering food for this Braai was down at the Boma stoking up the barbecue.

It is a cosy evening with family, special guests , players and their valued employees as invitees. Jeremy Thomson from Sky News traditionally compares the evening.

We made our way through the undergrowth into the area designed to protect us humans from the wild animals outside as the locals beat their traditional drums and some humans were sneaking about the trail imitating meerkats.

The players get presented with a bronze sculpture of an African animal each year and the theme this year was the little furry creature with the big eyes that is in stark contrast to one of the bigger members of African wildlife.

Some speeches were made and we could feel the sprinkling of rain as we listened intently. A little meerkat, pulling a little wagon with what was a very big statue of five of his fellow meerkats was lead towards a looming Ernie Els. Ernie said thanks on behalf of the players. As he was walking back to his table the heavens lit up and opened and everyone scarpered for cover.

Conrad's mouth-watering delicacies were just water in about 30 seconds and whole sumptuous spread literally got swept away into the bush. The weather turned fine for the weekend and despite this year's Nedbank Golf Challenge having a somewhat watered-down field with so many exempt players opting not to make the long journey to Southern Africa in December, the golf was of the highest standard.

For the home crowd it was a perfect denouement. They had one native in Trevor Immelman and one with close South African ties, Justin Rose, battling out for the title. Fittingly Trevor prevailed and gave the huge South African crowd something to celebrate on Sunday night, as if they needed an excuse.