Caddie's Role: The extensive prelude is reaching its end so it must be time to introduce the European bagmen who are going to assist the team in the quest to hang on to the Ryder Cup. There are two South Africans in the European caddie shack and the rest are Europeans.
Eoin Craig
(Thomas Levet)
Eoin has become a veteran by virtue of his time spent with the charismatic Frenchman. Having broken into caddying in 1998, he soon settled with Thomas and theirs has become one of the longest standing partnerships on tour at over six and a half years. Eoin decided in '97 he had had enough of dealing with fruit and vegetables as manager of the fresh produce section of a supermarket back in his native Northern Ireland. Little did he know what he was letting himself in for with some of the "ripe fruits" on the European tour. I met him in Morocco for the first time in early '98 where he was already nearly broke trying to sustain himself on tour in search of a bag. He was one of those who chose to just get out in the car-park and seek employment. He is a calm, soft-spoken and relatively experienced caddie, a perfect balance for his excitable boss.
Ken Comboy
(Paul Casey)
Ken is not quite a veteran but has been caddying for over a decade. He started with the former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart. He moved on from Andrew and ended up building a successful partnership with the Dane Thomas Bjorn. He made one Ryder Cup appearance with Thomas. Ken finished with Bjorn at the start of last year and kept in the Danish camp with Soren Hansen for a couple of months. He got the call up from Casey in the middle of last year and is now into the second year of that partnership. Paul is very complimentary of his fellow countryman on his bag. Comboy seems to know how to keep Paul relaxed and focused on the course.
Mick Donaghy
(Ian Poulter)
Mick is moving into the veteran category with over 15 years of caddying behind him. He started his career working for Mark Mouland before moving on to work for Jesper Parnevik in his golden period in the mid-'90s. He was with him for the Open in '94 when the critics were on his case about not alerting his man about his position on the leaderboard going up the final hole. Jesper needed a par to make a play-off with the winner Nick Price. Later the somewhat eccentric Swede admitted he was not aware of the state of play going up the last.
Mick has had a couple of good years with Poulter. It will be his first Ryder Cup but he has caddied in the States before with Parnevik, so he will be aware of the almost certain hostility that awaits him in Detroit.
Christian Donald
(Luke Donald)
Chris left his apprenticeship as a club pro in Harleyford, Buckinghamshire, in August 2001 to go to the States and caddie for his promising brother. He is a good golfer himself, playing to a two handicap at the moment due to lack of practice. He was always aware of his limitations as an aspiring playing pro - being around his brother probably helped him realise what it would take to make it professionally. He caddied for Luke in the Walker Cup in 1999. The players were not allowed bring their own caddies to Sea Island for the 2001 Walker Cup so he did not work there. He has had three wins with his brother, one on the US Tour a couple of years ago and more recently in Sweden and Switzerland.
A relative novice, he is a calm and controlled individual who seems to be doing all the right things for his brother at the moment.
Micheal Doran
(David Howell)
Mick is definitely in the veteran category. He is one of the original Wentworth caddies who came on tour back in the '80s. His most successful early bag was Costantino Rocca and he caddied for the Italian at the Ryder Cups he was involved in. He worked for Rocca in the Italian's prime and timed his departure from him perfectly by jumping almost immediately onto Lee Westwood's bag in '97 when the Englishman was in his pomp. He finished with Westwood a few years back and began another flourishing partnership with Justin Rose. Mick finished with Justin last year and took a break from caddying. He started the year with Nick Dougherty and just recently ended up on David Howell's bag. He is a very experienced and very successful caddie. I feel a little for Justin Templeman, David's last bagman. He is a good friend and caddied for him for over five years.
Ronan Flood
(Padraig Harrington)
Ronan took leave of absence from the bank in his native Dublin to pick up Padraig's bag and lug it round the fairways of the world. It is a stark contrast from banking, but he seems to have adjusted to the relatively unsettled lifestyle on tour. Ronan is an accomplished amateur golfer himself and despite his game having suffered a little from lack of practice, he feels he has gained as much in course management as he has lost in swing maintenance. As the partner of Padraig's wife's sister he is nearly family and obviously has a close relationship with his boss.
Despite a relatively slack middle part of the duo's season, last weekend's victory in Germany has given the relatively new partnership a timely boost. This naturally will be Ronan's first Ryder Cup appearance on the other side of Padraig's bag.
John Graham
(Lee Westwood)
This is John's 25th year as a caddie on the European Tour. He is one of the few remaining that has seen the tour from the lean days of the late '70s when caddies had to be very resourceful to break even.
"Scotchie", as John is known, built a very strong relationship with Mark James. His only previous Ryder Cup appearances came with "Jesse" James in 1989, '91 and '93. This will be his fourth Ryder Cup and his first with Westwood. John caddied for Lee back in 1996 and '97. I happened to be in the lobby of the hotel in Sweden on the Saturday morning of the Scandinavian Masters when John, after a heated exchange with his then boss, muttered some words of discontent and walked out on Westwood. The two have obviously made up and the Ryder Cup will be their 12th week back together. Watch "Scotchie" get down low on the putting surfaces, he is a brilliant reader of greens.
Billy Foster
(Darren Clarke)
Billy, by virtue of his Ryder Cup experience and the absence of Peter Coleman for the first time in decades from the Ryder Cup caddie shack, must be the unofficial caddie-daddie of this year's team. This will be the Yorkshireman's eighth appearance at the event. He did two with Gordon Brand Jnr, two with Seve and this is his fourth as Darren's caddie. Having split with Clarke a couple of years ago he wasn't long on the bench before Thomas Bjorn snapped him up. They had a couple of good years together including a near miss at last year's British Open. Billy is a very well respected caddie and his mere presence in the locker-room will probably be a morale booster to the European team.
Mike Kerr
(Miguel Angel Jimenez)
Mike Kerr was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Durban in South Africa. He was one of the many good golfers that came from SA to caddie. He played off scratch when he was playing, but now admits to six since he has been caddying.
He played with Tim Clarke and Rory Sabattini back home and they obviously went on to higher levels of golf on the US Tour. Mike settled for a few seasons of caddying on the Sunshine Tour, which in all amounted to about 20 events. He did an apprenticeship at the pro shop in a local Durban club and then embarked on the big move up to the Northern Hemisphere and began caddying on the European Tour for the New Zealander Stephen Scahill for a season. He then moved around and ended up with Carlos Rodiles from Spain and nearly won the Volvo Masters with him last year. Rodiles got injured at the start of this year and Jimenez asked Mike to caddie for him while his boss was recovering. Mike ended staying with Miguel permanently from the US Open this year. Their recent success would indicate a flowering relationship. This is Mike's first Ryder Cup.
Alastair McLean
(Colin Montgomerie)
It would appear to be no coincidence that the upturn in Monty's form has occurred with his old caddie back by his side. Alastair was hauled off his couch in Glasgow last month to come and rejoin his man for the BMW event in Munich. It seemed to have the desired effect for Colin - he finished third. Al is a Ryder Cup and caddying veteran having won all the Order Of Merit titles with Monty and having caddied for him in all of his six Ryder Cup appearances.
The two split in May last year. Since then McLean went on to work for Adam Scott who won the Players' Championship at Sawgrass earlier this year. He parted company with Scott right after their success and has been off tour since. He is obviously a morale-booster for the relatively disoriented Monty. The two will know how to deal with whatever abuse the American crowd may hurl at them.
Glen Murray
(Sergio Garcia)
With over a decade of caddying in the upper echelons of golf behind him it is a surprise to find that Murray never caddied in either a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Glen, a native of South Africa, started his career with compatriot Andre Bossert and was one of the first wave of South African caddies to make the break from home to try to break even by caddying their way around Europe.
He moved up from Bossert and started working for Retief Goosen. Despite a successful partnership with "the Goose" he decided to move over to Sergio's bag. He had caddied for him in in Sun City for a week and the partnership worked. He is still friendly with Retief, and I, as Retief's present caddie, am pretty grateful that he decided to work for Garcia. He didn't caddie at the last Ryder Cup due to illness. He is back to full health and is looking forward to his Ryder Cup debut. He is also known as "Hopper". See if you can tell why.
Darren Reynolds
(Paul McGinley)
One of the youngest members of the European Ryder Cup cads, Darren is a 26-year-old from Bray, but seemingly wise beyond his years. He started on tour with Domingo Hospital back in 1997 having caddied for his amateur friends Alan Murray and Kevin Condron, who later went on to be Irish internationals.
Darren has caddied for Paul in the States before in a couple of PGAs so he will not be a novice to the American spectators' behaviour. He has been impressed by his man's form and determination to make the team in his 10-week run up to the team selection and has no doubt about the duo's claim to a position on the team.
