Ken Comboy was awarded HSBC’s Caddie of the Year honours at the annual caddies’ dinner at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Comboy caddies for Graeme McDowell, whose three wins on The European Tour this season includes his maiden Major win at the US Open.
"Ken's a very worthy winner and someone who's been huge for my career," said McDowell.
"He's a great friend, a mediator, a psychologist and a coach - everything you can think of. To win Caddie of the Year in front of his fellow caddies will mean a lot to him because we all like to be recognised by our peers."
The role of the caddie has changed across the years. Where, 20 years ago, he would do little more than carry the bag and know the yardages, the modern version is a font of knowledge on any number of different fronts. He will know his man's game inside out and he will probably be able to reel off all the statistics pertinent to his game. In the opinion of one ex-player, Stuart Cage, the caddie's input has gone up from, say, 3% to 7 or 8%.
McDowell and Comboy paired up four and a half years ago but, after no more than a month, the Lancashire caddie went back to his old boss, Thomas Björn.
Three weeks later McDowell received a phone call from Comboy, who admitted he had made a mistake and could he come back. The pair were reunited and their first win came in the Ballantines Championship in 2008. There was some tough caddying to do that day as Graeme was involved a three-hole play-off with Jeev-Milkha Singh.
The 18th was the only play-off hole and, at the third time of asking, McDowell and Comboy decided on a seven-iron for their 179 yard second shot. It finished a foot from the hole and was widely hailed as one of the shots of McDowell's career.
