CADDIE'S ROLE:Yardage charts are the current topic of much debate in both the caddie shack and the locker-rooms of Europe

JUST AS a sailor has his nautical charts or an adventurer has maps, we caddies have yardage books to accurately guide our masters around the links. The book is our satellite navigation, used to get us back to the clubhouse without giving our players any mystery numbers.

Those of us loopers who go back a couple of decades remember the trials of making our own yardage books on a weekly basis. That was back in the days before the laser and odometer, the era of primitive pacing and other basic methods of calculating distance.

Eighteen years ago an Australian caddie who had taken great pride in making an advanced book in his day decided there was a market on tour for the quality of book he produced. He was right.

Others made books for general consumption in competition but for their own reasons dropped out of the book race. Graeme Heinrich moved off the bag and onto the drawing board.

And so the Graeme Heinrich yardage chart was born and it evolved over the years to be a well recognised document, without which no European golfer worth his salt would be seen at a tournament.

At Dublin airport there is a big advertisement, just before you descend the final steps to baggage claim, with a picture of Tiger Woods consulting one of Graeme Heinrich's yardage books.

You could not have a more influential golfer endorsing of your product.

Heinrich has produced the book for the European Ryder Cup team this week in Kentucky, as he has for six previous Ryder Cups.

Team USA have their own American numbers expert commissioned to guide them strategically around Valhalla this week. The yardage chart is undoubtedly a vital document for caddie and player.

Strange then that the said Koran of the caddie shack is in jeopardy of being ousted from its permanent perch as "the" yardage book of the European Tour. It is the current topic of much debate in both the caddie shack and the locker-rooms of Europe.

I suppose you could say the revolt came because of the change of price. The price of the Heinrich book went up to €25 in May and then a short time later jumped again to €30.

Having a yardage book you can rely on as a player and caddie comes at a price. Good decisions on the course are based upon good numbers. Knowing you can depend upon a yardage book when you show up at an event is a great comfort and a huge time-saver.

The majority of caddies have only known life with a guaranteed book each week. Only a few of us remember the hassle of having to hand-make one. The price hike pushed the majority over the edge.

The caddies association actively sought a direct competitor. The sentiment was that the guy who had provided the reliable service every week for 18 years was not worth the price he was charging: pure economics. The word was that "we" wanted competition.

There were discussions between the caddies' association and Graeme Heinrich. Nothing was resolved so the association decided to call up Dion Stevens - coincidentally, also an Australian - who provides the books on the Ladies Tour. He now produces a book for both tours, which ultimately is going to be difficult to sustain.

Interestingly, the newcomer has pledged €1.26 a book to the caddies' association when he becomes established.

This strikes me as not a true form of competition but another type of monopoly.

I found myself in a slightly awkward situation last Tuesday as Graeme's salesperson and Dion were in situ outside the Gut Larchenhof clubhouse near Cologne selling their wares. After 18 years of monopoly, now there was a choice to make.

The state of play at present is that we have the choice of two yardage books on tour each week. The Heinrich for €30 and the newcomer's version at €20.

We all know the value of our currency. Naturally the cheaper one has made a huge impression on the market share.

The European Tour seem to have sat on the fence when it came to supporting the person who had provided effectively an outsourced service to the tour for so many years. The tour have traditionally sprayed paint on the fairways to indicate yardages. This goes back to the days when we made our own books. The paint was supposed to make getting yardage easier.

Without endorsing Heinrich there was tacit consent to him spraying the fairways each week in return for use of the printing facilities. It was a cosy if rather loose arrangement from which, given Heinrich's reliability, the tour benefited greatly.

When this recent dissent manifested itself the tour didn't take sides but their curious response was that both parties had their permission to spray dots on the course and whoever got to the venue earliest got to spray.

Spraying the paint controls the bookmaking process. This tour policy must surely end in tears as dubious tactics have reportedly been already used by the paint sprayers.

Nothing lasts forever (that is for sure) and choices are the advantages of democracy. We choose different products often based on price, sometimes because of quality or simply because we are free to choose and we feel like changing.

There is a fight for favour among the numbers providers on the European Tour and by the end of the year one of the distance providers will be squeezed out by price, preference or simply the desire for a change.