Caddie's Role:Traditionally, we receive speedy immigration clearance at Johannesburg International Airport by being whisked through the diplomatic channel by official tournament staff.

I had gloated about this to my friend on the flight down only to find on arrival that we had to join the longest immigration queue both he and I had ever seen. There was a new regime at the newly named OR Tambo airport in the capital, and the diplomatic fast track was now, curiously, for diplomats alone, and no longer for the benefit of sportsmen's employees.

I was starting to fret a bit. I had built the Nedbank Golf Challenge up to my non-golfing guest as being the pinnacle of golf tournaments from every perspective. Maybe the budget had been slashed: the frills had been trimmed?

We nodded off on the two-hour road trip to Sun City and nothing more was said about the long queue.

It didn't take long to quell my fears about the hospitality; the red carpet was rolled out for us from arrival to departure. It is easy to get complacent about a high standard that has been set in the past, and it took a fresh pair of eyes for me to realise just how accommodating the staff really are.

There is something else that definitely has not changed in South Africa and that is a particular use of the response "is it?". As a reply to the statement "it is very hot out on the course today", "is it?" is perfectly fine.

As a follow up to 'The greens are running really fast', "Is it" seems a little odd, but perhaps all they are saying is "oh really?"

But when you are not familiar with the local vernacular, you would be forgiven for thinking they hadn't heard you correctly.

There is one statement you can make at the tournament in Sun City, where players, caddies, family and friends are treated like royalty and the dialect fits in very well. This is the best tournament in the world for the invited dozen. "Is it?". It really is, is the response.

The entertainment director greeted us at check-in and before we had reached our rooms we had been booked on a sunrise game drive the next day followed by the adrenalin gushing zip slide down a nearby mountain.

The Pilanesberg "big five" National Park is packed with game and the two and a half hour jaunt around the park early last Monday morning revealed more game to me than I had ever seen. Surely the animals were not trying to accommodate us too?

We came across baboons, hippos, elephants, all sorts of bucks, lions, white rhinos, black rhinos, giraffes and zebras on the relatively short trip.

The zip slide was set up a few years ago just outside the resort. The slide is a cable on to which you are harnessed head-first and catapulted back down to land at a speed of up to 160 kms per hour, replete with tail-fin between your ankles. I suppose it has to be the closest sensation to flying without wings that you can experience.

Quite a few of us made the high speed descent and have the certificates to prove it.

There is almost a feeling of living in a cocoon when you are invited to exclusive events like this. There is a tremendous sense of privilege to be part of it.

We caddies have our own caddies which makes the manual part of our job less arduous with the temperatures soaring into the high 30s and humid.

Charl Schwartzel, the budding young star from South Africa, was the beneficiary of the revised status of the event this year. In order to regain world ranking points the Nedbank had to include an exemption from the South African Order of Merit. Charl won the Sunshine Order of Merit and so earned his place amongst the Sun City elite. With four exempt players from South Africa in the tournament, the strength of golf in this part of the world is quite apparent.

Despite the long immigration line at Johannesburg International the hardship of the Nedbank Golf Challenge ends there and the tradition of pampering continues. Is this the best event in the world? The answer in any vernacular: It is.