Self-made Prayad wins his place among elite

As a boy, Prayad Marksaeng fashioned a golf club from a piece of bamboo and a chunk of scrap metal.

Early mornings and late afternoons, between stints of caddying at the Royal Hua Hin Golf Club, he'd experiment with his crudely manufactured implement.

By the time he reached his mid-teens in the early 1980s, he'd graduated to a cast-off iron, handed to him by a member of the club. From those humble beginnings, Prayad, through a combination of hard work, desire and dedication, has emerged as a bona fide golfing star.

And during the past week in Phuket, Prayad, the son of a pedal cart taxi driver, assured himself of a place in the annals of Asian professional golf.

The rise and rise of Prayad, now aged 31, has been a remarkable story.

For, unlike the majority of the players who teed-off in the eighth Johnnie Walker Classic at Blue Canyon, neither has Prayad come from a privileged background, nor is he a product of the college system.