Caddying for your keep is a burden to carry

While caddies at a Bangkok golf club continue to fight for their right to maintain their livelihood, one of the highest-profile members of golf's caddying fraternity has been left without a bag to carry. Temporarily, at least.

Following weeks of speculation that all was not well, world number one Tiger Woods announced he would be parting ways with Mike 'Fluff' Cowan, his caddie of the past 30 months.

However, Cowan, the laidback, moustachioed, cigarette-puffing caddie who helped Woods to his momentous triumph in the 1997 US Masters, and also enjoyed two successes in tandem with Woods in Thailand, should not have too much difficulty landing a new boss.

The same cannot be said of the 500 caddies at the State Railway of Thailand golf course who stand to lose their jobs if proposed plans to replace the golfing facility with a public park are pushed through.

For nine months the caddies have defiantly refused to leave the grounds, despite city orders to do so. Declining offers to take up lower-paying 'city' salaries, the caddies have camped out at the course, setting up barricades to prevent non-golfers entering.

Late last year, when the city tried to break down their resistance using cranes and hundreds of police, the caddies resisted, hurling bottles, stones and golf balls at the intruders. The city cut the power to the clubhouse . . . but the caddies reconnected it.

According to Saturday's Bangkok Post, talks to settle the dispute are still deadlocked.