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RIO DE JANEIRO -- The first Olympics in South America. The first time for golf in 112 years. So imagine the deep sense of honor for Adilson da Silva when the only Brazilian in the 60-man field was chosen to hit the first tee shot.One of the most special times in my life, he said.The honor is not his alone.Joining him on the first tee Thursday at Olympic Golf Course will be Andrew Edmondson, who has been part of da Silvas unlikely golf career for the better part of 30 years. Edmondson asked to be his caddie for the week, and both men could only smile at circumstances that led to this occasion.Long ago, on a nine-hole course in Santa Cruz do Sol about a two-hour flight south of Rio, it was the other way around.Da Silva was an 11-year-old who saw golf only as a way to make a little pocket money.If we found golf balls, we would sell them for pocket money, he said. My parents didnt have much, so we had to do a bit of work. It teaches a good lesson. It was great fun. I used to go with my brother and friends. It teaches you to work a bit, to get things by working for it.The more he worked and watched, the more the game began to appeal to him, even without the proper equipment. Finding golf balls to hit was the easy part. Getting golf clubs required a little imagination. Santa Cruz was the only course in town. Spare golf clubs were in short supply.We used to cut the branch of a tree in the shape of a golf club, da Silva said. It was a proper head, you just had to shape it up nicely. I guess you had to improvise. Your timing had to be right because the shaft would be wobbly.Edmondson, a tobacco buyer from Zimbabwe, used to spend half the year working his trade in Brazil. He loved golf, which was much more prominent in Zimbabwe, a country that produced Nick Price and Mark McNulty.Edmondson would play on the weekends at Santa Cruz, and da Silva was 11 when he first hired him as a caddie.They became close enough, and da Silva was getting good enough, that they would play together when Edmondson didnt have a regular game.I caddied for him for a couple of years when he came over for tobacco season, and weve become good friends, da Silva said. And then one day he said, `Look, do you want to give it a go? Because maybe he thought there was some potential there. I was very fortunate.Edmondson knew the teen would have a hard time developing his game in Brazil.It really was a `baby steps kind of thing, Edmondson said. He didnt go from an 11-year-old caddie to the professional level. Basically, I was living out there and was transferred back to Zimbabwe. They have a very good junior golf program, and I got him into that. He got coaching from Tim Price, Nicks brother.Da Silva was 17, and Edmondson figured he played off a 5 handicap. Within a few years, da Silva was winning amateur titles in Brazil and Zimbabwe, and he was good enough to turn pro at age 22.His family still lives in Brazil, though da Silva has moved to Durban, South Africa and plays primarily on the Asian Tour and Sunshine Tour in South Africa. He has four career victories, starting with a Sunshine Tour event in 1998, his best year coming in 2013 when he won the Zambia Open and Sun City Challenge.He has qualified for the British Open three times, making the cut (a tie for 69th) at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 2012.The Olympics tops them all.As the host nation, Brazil was guaranteed at least one player for the Rio Games. Two Brazilians have made it to the PGA Tour -- Lucas Lee this year and Alexandre Roche in 2011 and 2012 -- and da Silva felt it was going to be close. He left nothing to chance, traveling across Asia to play seven times in eight weeks early in the year, staying away from his family in South Africa to chase world ranking points and secure his spot in Rio.Its a big deal to get here, he said. I maybe have another chance, but this one, I needed to make sure. I sacrificed a lot. There was a lot of traveling. Its hard to leave your wife and kid behind, but it was something I had to do. I couldnt wait for it to happen. I had to make sure I was traveling and playing and practicing.A tie for fourth in the Indian Open in March gave him breathing room, and a runner-up finish in the Swazi Open sealed it.To be at home in Brazil for the first golf in the Olympics in 1904 was special. He was on the course with Rickie Fowler and Henrik Stenson and the rest of the best. And then the greatest week in his life got even better.They came up to me and said, `Youll be the first one to tee off. I was like, `Woooo! What an honor. I feel like I dont deserve it, da Silva said. Im very lucky.Edmondson feels the same way.He has caddied for da Silva a couple of times, mostly at the Zimbabwe Open and once at the Swiss Open. He didnt want to miss this, not with their history together.When it looked like he was going to play in the Olympics, I asked him if he wouldnt mine, and fortunately, he agreed, Edmondson said. Its quite overwhelming. Just to be part of the Olympics, being involved with a close friend, its awesome. Vincent Lecavalier Jersey . LOUIS -- Alexander Steen scored a power-play goal with 59. Ryan Callahan Jersey . LOUIS -- Heading into the final stretch of the season, the issues for the Chicago Bears banged-up defence only seem to be getting worse. http://www.lightninghockeystore.us/Brayden-Point-Jersey/ . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Martin St. Louis Jersey . "Four now," Carl Gunnarsson told the Leaf Report proudly following a 5-2 victory over New York on Tuesday night, the clubs fifth straight at home. Louis Domingue Lightning Jersey . Dusautoir, the former World Player of the Year, sustained a torn bicep playing for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup on Saturday. The flanker, who has played 65 times for France, is expected to be out for up to four months. Indias Test debut, at Lords on June 25, 1932, started in dramatic fashion when they reduced a strong England side to 19 for 3 inside the first hour. There was to be no fairytale ending. Douglas Jardine, who by the end of the year had become a figure of hatred in Australia, twice bailed England out and India, hit by injuries as well, lost by 158 runs. Jardine, however, might have played a completely different role in the match.The politics of India at the time meant that the captain of the All-India side had to be from nobility, much as the England captain had to be an amateur. This narrowed the field considerably as while there were eligible candidates, none of them were good enough as players. But the game needed the money and patronage the nobility brought with them.In 1929 India were admitted to the ICC and Anthony de Mello, the secretary of the Indian board, suggested that perhaps an Englishman could captain India, mainly to act as a neutral who might be able to bridge and handle ethnic and religious divides. The man suggested was Jardine, Bombay born, from a family with strong links to the country, and reportedly on the verge of going to settle back there. The idea never came to anything, and Jardine ended up leading England against them at Lords. Other candidates included KS Duleepsinhji, despite his education at Cheltenham and Cambridge, but it is widely believed that Plum Warner talked him out of any such thoughts and persuaded him to play for England.New Zealand had made their Test debut in 1926 and West Indies in 1928, so India was sure to follow. It should have happened in 1930-31 but a tour by MCC was cancelled because of a civil disobedience campaign, and another attempt the following season was scrapped when threats to boycott all matches in Bombay were made.And so it was that India were scheduled to tour England in 1932, but even then it was far from straightforward. Although arrangements began to be made in the first half of 1931, as late as August there were doubts as some provinces objected and threatened to boycott the trip.On February 4, it was announced that the Maharajah of Patiala, a massively rich and generous benefactor and keen player, would lead the side. A driving force in Indian cricket, he was a natural choice. Kumar Shri Ghanshyamshinhji was named vice-captain and the deputy vice-captain was the Maharajah of Vizianagram, equally rich and keen but no cricketer, and a bitter rival of Patiala. Vizianagram had been expected, or more likely had expected, to lead the side but was usurped when Patiala stepped in.It was expected that the Nawab of Pataudi would be included but the release announcing the team said he had not been considered as he informed the Board of Control he could not participate in the tour. This bland comment disguised anger that he had turned his back on India at the 11th hour. Even the reserved Times editorial said his decision had caused soreness as he had definitely promised to play ...he took part in all of the trials and accepted the captaincy of one of the sides in the last match.There wwas some speculation whether foreigners - primarily Englishmen - living in India would be eligible, but it was decided not to go down this route.dddddddddddd It is, said The Times, a thing for young India. Some were certainly good enough. Reggie Hudson, described by Wisden as the best services batsman of the inter-war years, was scoring so many hundreds that one fellow officer said he was becoming a nuisance. He was in England anyway in 1932 and in a first-class match at The Oval in August scored 217 in 225 minutes for the Army against the RAF, the second hundred coming in 70 minutes.Patialas selection caused raised eyebrows in The Times. It noted he had played little cricket in the preceding two years and had preoccupied himself with leading a group of princes who regarded democracy and the likelihood of a new constitution with a nervous eye.The side left Bombay - huge crowds turned out to see them off - on April 4 but by then Patiala and Vizianagram had withdrawn. Vizianagram was the first to pull out, ostensibly through illness but more likely he was put out at not only being overlooked as captain but even as vice-captain. His move was unwise, as soon afterwards Patiala himself withdrew, again because of ill health. The Maharajah of Porbandar stepped into the void, but Vizianagrams behaviour as captain of the 1936 tour indicated that India had a lucky escape.Whereas Vizianagram insisted on playing all the Tests in 1936, to the teams detriment, Porbandar knew his considerable limitations and only occasionally took to the field. To him, it was inconceivable that he would captain them at Lords, and so on the eve of the Lords Test he told his side that CK Nayudu would captain them.Porbandar was woken in the night by several players who told him they would not play under Nayudu. His vice-captain, Ghanshyamshinhji, was not with the tour party at the time, and so Porbandar sent a cable to Patiala in India. The no-nonsense response came back. They were to play.So several of the Indians were hardly in the best state of mind as they took to the field the next morning. Not that Englands openers were in any better state of mind. Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes, who ten days earlier had set a world record in an opening stand of 555 at Leyton, only arrived in London in the early hours as Yorkshires match against Sussex at Leeds had only ended at 6pm the night before.Within ten minutes both were back in the pavilion and India were finally underway.Fifty-one years later, to the day, Lords was the scene of possibly Indian crickets greatest day when Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup.Is there an incident from the past you would like to know more about? E-mail us with your comments and suggestions.BibliographyA History of Indian Cricket Mihir Bose (Andre Deutsch, 2002)Douglas Jardine: Spartan Cricketer Christopher Douglas (Methuen, 2002)The Cricketer Wisden Cricketers Almanack Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo ' ' '