John Roberts' caddying career effectively began when he bumped into the European Tour in Thailand in 1998. He was on holiday in Phuket when the Tour hit town. John picked up a local player with a very long name and all our lives on Tour were changed.

A newcomer is never very welcome in the caddie shack. A potential threat, an unknown quantity, he/she is always kept at a distance for a lengthy initiation period.

When his player shot a couple opening rounds in the high 70s to miss the cut and John was sighted on the first bus for the golf course on Saturday morning for the third round there was even more hostility than usual. What was he doing on the first bus when his player had missed the cut? Was he hoping there might be a "no show" due to the holiday atmosphere surrounding this Asian paradise island?

Contact had to be made, if for no other reason than to hurl abuse at the novice.

When the subject was broached, John's answer was that he thought he had made the cut. As he was working for a Thai national and the cut fell on Friday night at the top 65 players and ties, he had assumed locals (Thais, not ties) automatically qualified.

When the guffaws had subsided, this news spread rapidly through the caddie shack and John Roberts gained instant notoriety. This guy was surely here for their entertainment and not a real threat.

Standing at not much more than five feet small, bespectacled and with an ability to talk the leg off an iron pot, it didn't take the caddie shack long to christen the talkative newcomer "Ronnie Corbett". And a bit like the man from whom he had taken his nickname, he was never to be asked a question unless one was prepared for an answer that was long drawn out and frequently lost on irrelevant tangents.

Ronnie, at 52 years young, embarked upon a would-be caddying career (he had caddied back in the 1970s, on and off), "still young enough to be able to reach the top before retiring at the age of 70". He sold his financial services business (he is a qualified accountant) in mid '97 and has since devoted himself to caddying.

Ronnie's career has seen him return to Asia, where it all began for him. He has teamed up with the young Yorkshire player Simon Dyson and they took the Asian Tour by storm.

They had back-to-back victories before returning to Europe three weeks ago, and Ronnie tells me he played no small part in these triumphs. In the China Open there was, he says, a pivotal hole in the third round. Due to Ronnie's diligence, he spotted an error in the yardage book on the ninth hole which he verified by pacing to the pin, all of 92 yards.

Dyson left the hole with a birdie which Ronnie "created", he assured me, through his "professionalism". In this alliance between a "northern lad and a southern gentleman", all Dyson has to do is "swing the club and replace the divots", and Ronnie assures me he does these well.

There are many aspects of Ronnie's career that I, as a caddie, cannot fathom. Like why his player had to extract him from the sauna half an hour before his tee time in the final round of the China Open.

I'm also not sure which details Ronnie, who refers to himself as Dyson's guide dog on the course, sees fit to pay attention to.

He had his man doing deep breathing exercises on the final tee in the China Open, as he was feeling the pressure of needing a par to win. A "rock your shoulders" comment to his master as he stood over an eight-foot putt for the title appears to have been invaluable wisdom.

Still, through his upbeat and enthusiastic behaviour and, to a lesser degree, his incessant talking, John Roberts has made an indelible mark on the caddie shack.