Caddie's Role:There is nothing like travel to bring you back down to earth with a back-wrenching jolt after the elation of some victorious drama on the final hole of a tournament. There is a reverence afforded the winner of a golf event (and his caddie) that really does make one feel rather special.

The courtesy car was ready for a fast getaway to the VIP wing of the Doha International airport. We jumped out of the limo, the baggage handlers took our luggage and loaded the plane.

The tournament liaison took our passports, escorted us to the hospitality lounge and within five minutes we were on the plane and ready for the night flight back to England. All this and the "pearl in a shell" Qatar Masters trophy in the hold.

What a life, I smugly thought, as we took off over the Arabian Sea toasting the champion with a chilled glass of bubbly.

As we were not due to land till after midnight in Luton airport, I had booked myself into a hotel on site and was to get the 6.25am Ryanair departure to Dublin. If we had been flying west to east, I may have even got dropped off from the jet directly at Dublin.

On landing, I paid the obligatory excess baggage charge, given I was not carrying a knapsack on a two-week trip. A slow wind through security, and I trundled through the concourse towards the boarding area.

It's a couple of long par fives' walk to the Ryanair gates at Luton. I noticed a monitor halfway which had a big red highlight on the Dublin flight saying it was delayed by three and a quarter hours. I thought, hopefully, I had misread the screen. The dejected passengers loping back towards the main part of the terminal suggested otherwise.

Having been fortunate enough to have been spared the need to fly with the ultimate low-cost airline in recent years, I had secretly believed the reports I had heard on the radio from disgruntled passengers were grossly exaggerated. The treatment we received from Ryanair's handlers after some reasonable questions in Luton airport was beginning to make me wonder if I had been too harsh on the sceptical customers.

Our flight had been delayed over technical difficulties. There was a flight from Stansted airport soon after 8am. Customers could try to catch that flight at their own expense and no effort would be made to tell them if there were any seats available and they certainly would not book anyone on the flight.

I decided to sit it out, have a long, lingering breakfast - which I had originally hoped to have in the comfort of my own home in Dublin if the capital's morning traffic was not too thick - and defer my plans at home for four hours. It could have been worse, I thought.

I had timed my drawn-out breakfast and exhausted the commentary page of the newspaper to get to the gate for my 9.40 departure to Dublin.

An announcement was made that the flight had been put back to 13.15. A sea of babbling, Dublin-bound customers aired their views to the well-versed customer service staff. There were plenty of deferential sirs and madams but no appeasing answers.

I find it hard to be civilised in large gatherings of disgruntled people. It's just not easy to be as mannerly as you would like under the duress of a flight delay of over eight hours without one word of explanation from the airline representatives or talk of alternative arrangements. The only answer I repeatedly heard was that Ryanair is a low-cost airline. To which I would add: with a low-life attitude.

Having travelled for so many years, naturally I have been at the wrong end of some major delays. Most airlines at least make an effort to placate their customers. Not so Ryanair. Tough luck was the message that came over the customer services counter.

When I asked for written proof that there was a technical problem with our original aircraft, the assistant wrote neatly on a scrap of paper that our flight was delayed due to technical difficulties. She would not sign or stamp the "document", stating I could use her signature for anything.

I decided to cut my losses and book a flight from Heathrow at 14.10. Getting my "excess" baggage off the plane was another drama. Anyway, I made it back to Dublin late afternoon to see on the monitor that my original Ryanair flight from Luton had just landed before me.

Now call me suspicious or just over-travelled, but the other scheduled Ryanair flight which should have landed at around the same time was not on the monitor. I can't imagine a low-cost airline would amalgamate the 6.25 and 13.15 flights because their passenger loads did not look that profitable. But the attitude of their representatives would not really suggest this was not the case.

I will never fly with Ryanair again after the appalling treatment that I and my fellow passengers received from the mighty airline. I felt fortunate to get back to be swamped by the evening Dublin traffic and not the morning rush as I had expected.

The reverence afforded being part of a winning team is not something Ryanair would appear to want to bestow on their passengers. In fact, some basic human respect is something they do not seem to afford their travellers either.

If you ever want to be brought down from the rarified air of a recent victory, 6am at Luton airport trying to figure out just what the low-cost airline is up to should keep your feet very much on the tarmac.