When I walked up to my first tee box during the Barclays Singapore Open 2008, I saw a familiar face. It wasn't the face of a top marquee player from the US, nor was it a blazing star on the European circuit. In fact, it wasn't someone recognizable from the Asian Tour as well. The person I'm referring to is the caddie for the American-born Korean golfer Young Nam. His name is Rosai.

I know Rosai from his days working at the Singapore Island Country Club. A friendly man with a ready smile, and an irrepressible cordial sense about him. I asked him where he's been the last few years as I haven't seen him for a while. He said that he had been working in a container port, but that he had been laid off recently. He's had to revert to caddying for a livelihood now, waiting for the economy and his luck to turn for the better. 

Working in the golf industry - one that is steeped in luxury, an an environment for the elite - we often forget the real world out there, the one where people slog to put food on the table to feed their families. In the golf arena, these hardworking, honest people are often marginalized, bit part actors in a blockbuster movie where eyes just follow the headliners. But the work of people like Rosai - and we include the greenskeepers, golf cart attendants, food and beverage service staff, in a considerable list - are instrumental in making the golf machine that is the golf course, and in no lesser extent the Sentosa Golf Club where the Barclays Singapore Open is played, work.

The current global crisis has stripped Rosai from his job, and luckily, he has had golf as a backup. But while banks and companies struggle to make do in these trying times, we can only imagine how many people find themselves in a similar hole, without any recourse. I can only hope that Rosai gets to work through the weekend with Young Nam, and make some decent money in the process.