Caddie's Role:So you win a major and the long hours of relentless practice begin to make sense. For as many times as a player has had the nightmare of having to play an impossible shot from inside a phone box he has hopefully had as many dreams of hoisting one of the coveted trophies they present to a major winner.

For the very few has the dream become a reality. Not that Padraig Harrington was not a serious contender for major titles but there has to be a series of events that go against your fellow competitors and a few things that go your way to make the dream become a reality; the freakish bad luck of the young Argentine Andres Romero on the 17th hole when he hit the wall of the Barry Burn and bounced out of bounds. The battling up and down that Padraig made on the last to get into a play-off. If he had made seven on 18 he may well have been thrown in the Van De Velde bin of also-rans.

Of course this didn't happen, rather Padraig made it happen for himself. You make your own luck in the fickle game of golf and despite others smoothing your path to victory you still have to bring in the lowest score.

The rewards for success in an event like the British Open Championship are vast. As a player with a wily management company you should be set for life. Eight years ago the dream came true for Paul Lawrie, the local boy from up the road in Aberdeen. A short while after his victory he bought his first sponsor's house and the big car that went with such an abode. It was a dream that he did not expect to become a reality so soon in his career - if at all.

Incidentally it was observed by some of my colleagues that Paul won with a Wilson golf bag and the Kartel name stitched on the front of his clothing. Funny that Padraig also plays Wilson and wears Kartel. Next time the Open is back at Carnoustie it might be wise to predict your winner based on bag and clothes.

Depending on who you talk to and what their accounting principles are, the Open champion stands to earn €20 million on the back of the victory. The snag is that it is not put straight into his bank account. As a serious contender winning a major can become a major distraction if you are not selective and fairly ruthless in how you deal with the aftermath of that success.

As a caddie the idea of receiving a bigger percentage of a win is that you somehow share not only in the victory of the event but you also get a little extra reward for all the other spin-offs that the player receives from sponsors and any other bonus deals that go with winning. Of course everyone's deal is a personal matter and there are no set rules for how a caddie is paid.

On Sunday, July 22nd, at about 7.30pm local time on the Angus coast Harrington began his reign as 136th Open champion. He immediately assumed the role of ambassador with a speech that said all the right things about all the right people. It is of course no surprise to Padraig that he won the Open and, knowing his attention to detail, he did not just think up those words after he sunk his winning putt.

His words now are more important and of course more sought after by the world's media. For a man who has been so generous with the media since he turned himself into a world-class player, they are probably going to make even more demands of him.

For a professional who is devoted to his practice regimes this means that without a strong discipline he will have to eat into his practice time or just spend even longer at the golf course taking care of on- and off-course business.

In tour-speak Harrington had a free week last week. As those of you listened to the radio or watched television or played in the boys Tilestyle competition at his local club at Stackstown will be aware, it sounded like anything but a free week.

Although it sounds a little mean, management companies will have set times for how long their client is obliged to spend at functions in events they have been contracted to play at. This may not always be necessary but it is frequently problematic when they have to attend a dinner served at 10pm and they have to perform as a golfer the next day at 7am. Legal restrictions are a wise safety net. Golf is after all not just a game at this level, it is very much a business.

Padraig's aspiration to win more majors has probably increased in the past weeks. Therefore it is important he keeps working on the aspects of his game that got him to where he is today. Padraig will be invited to play in events here, there and everywhere, and this is part of the calculation of the €20 million potential earnings from the win.

These events are draining on a player but it takes a strong will and a realistic sense of your potential as a player to refuse some, if not all, of these offers.

The challenge now is to balance the guaranteed financial rewards against the belief in his ability to earn even more by competing effectively in the big events in the future. This is the toughest decision for a successful golfer. Do you take the guaranteed money or do you try to win more big titles?