Sunday Times article about caddies' life on tour?

Misleading, destructive ... don't believe a word of it!

FROM THE IRISHTIMES.COM WEBSITE
By COLIN BYRNE
Colin Byrne is not only one of the European Tour's leading caddies, he also contributes an excellent, well-fashioned and informative weekly column for the Irish Times. No question about it, he should have been a journalist! This is his latest:
The opening line of the Sunday Times Magazine cover story about “how Tiger’s behaviour became par for the course” should have rung alarm bells immediately to the suspicious European Tour golf caddie.
It described the “sumptuous” hospitality suite of the “swanky” Parador de Golf Hotel, host to the Open de Andalucia, situated on the flight path out of Malaga’s airport.
The tournament was, with all due respect to Miguel Angel Jimenez – the event’s local ambassador who it was rumoured contributed a wad of his own money in order to prop the event up – a throw back to the early ’90s on the European Tour when we used to play on average courses for very little money. Apart from the wonderful food that Miguel provided, there was nothing sumptuous or swanky about it.
The features author set the tone of the exposé about life on the European Tour on a misleading path which was continued throughout the glossy pages with anonymous quotes. I had to flick back to the front cover to reaffirm that it was in fact the Sunday Times supplement and not some tabloid magazine.
Given my position as an international porter, I have a detailed knowledge of life on tour, so I feel qualified to take such offence to a piece that is not only misleading, it is actually destructive to the majority of us who lead this nomadic lifestyle with the same mores of civilised behaviour and dignity that most people try to instil in their daily, more settled lives.
For a broadsheet newspaper to publish such a piece is, in my opinion, irresponsible and unfair to the majority of us who maintain normal relationships with wives or partners, which are extra demanding due to the amount of time we spend away from home.
If you didn’t read the offensive article of April 11, then I will summarise the thread of the rant: virtually all the caddies and most of the players on tour are on a sex romp around the world. There is a particularly absurd anonymous quote that “80 per cent of the caddies are brothel hands, they know one in every city”.
If you make such an outrageous statement through a quote, you need to put a name to it. You should really verify the veracity of such a damning quotation. Not so, the mission seemed to be to write the sensational headline and fill in the details regardless of the truth.
As caddies we have spent a long time trying to establish our unusual alternative profession and bring some dignity to carrying an oversized, overweight golf bag around the world for a living.
It is only in recent years that the rough edges have been shaved off what was once considered a job for desperados only.
Someone who had no knowledge of golf, or the travelling circus which is life on tour, reading the Sunday Times feature wouldn’t be too far wrong in assuming that caddies are a sordid bunch of low-lifes.
I understand that it is difficult to make an assessment of a microcosm of society with a cursory glance at their existence over the course of a few days. Therefore it is even more shameful that such an unfounded affront is printed as a fair representation of what happens on tour.
As a matter of coincidence five European Tour caddies have offered their services for free this week to travel to Mombassa in order to coach some local kids how to caddie and hopefully give them a chance of bettering themselves. I will be looking anxiously at the Sunday Times’ slant on this magnanimous trip.
This is much the same as any group travelling abroad on work trips I would assume. Many of these golfers and their caddies are young, single men with an opportunity for adventure in a new city. What they do is entirely their business away from the golf course.
Would the feature writer write so disparagingly about journalist colleagues, a group of doctors or bankers on an overseas conference?
It is safe to say that there will be a percentage who prefer to visit museums in their down-time much like many on the golf tour.
If I do happen upon another Sunday Times Magazine sensational piece again in the future about a lifestyle of which I know nothing, I will understand that it is meant as light entertainment at the expense of the subjects in question and responsible journalism.
+The above article appears in the Irish Times today.