The blond hair, blue hat and blind eye of Woods

David Davies presents 12 things you didn't know about the world No1, from matchplay with JP McManus to sweatshop swooshes

1: Tiger has always professed to love matchplay but his record in the Ryder Cup is a bit iffy. He has got only 3 points out of 10 attempts and among the people who have beaten him at this level are Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Nick Faldo, Lee Westwood, Jesper Parnevik, Sergio Garcia, Darren Clarke, Paul Lawrie and Costantino Rocca.

2: He does not always win at amateur level, either. Once, in Ireland, he played a match against the billionaire currency trader and horse race legend, JP McManus, below. But McManus, below, set the rules for the match which were that both players hit each shot twice, with Woods having to take his worse attempt and McManus allowed his better. Woods was never in it and McManus won, easing up, 3&2.

3: His self-confessed worst crime on a golf course? Wearing a brown belt with black trousers and a dark grey shirt. Oh, and a light blue hat. The outrage was perpetrated, Tiger says, "because I got up before dawn".

4: Tiger takes after his father when it comes to money. He's notoriously parsimonious. He may fly a few of his Stanford College mates over to the Belfry. He won't expect them to pay the fare but uses his accumulated air miles to pay for their tickets.

5: He has joined a gang - something he couldn't do when growing up and playing golf all the time. They call themselves The Brothers and consist of basketball's Michael Jordan, above, Charles Barkley and the former professional footballer Ahmad Rashad. "Our bond," says Barkley, "is that we're black, famous, rich and living in a fish bowl." Jordan says: "He's my younger bro."

6: They occasionally go on holiday together, with Alex Rodriguez, a short-stop with the Texas Rangers who recently signed a contract worth $252m (£162m), sometimes joining them. The last time was around New Year when they went to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Jordan gambled, placing up to $5,000 on a single card. Tiger dyed his hair blond.

7: He took one controversial holiday after winning that 1997 Masters. Invited to the Clinton White House, he declined, even though the function was to honour the 50th anniversary of the first black man in baseball, Jackie Robinson. There are not many Democrats on the US Tour.

8: He gives his all to golf and the effort he will be making at the Belfry to improve his poor overall record will be enormous. But, with all his energies being poured into sport, there is as yet no sign of an active social conscience. Even though Earl has compared his son to Gandhi and Mandela, Woods has no ready-made opinion to offer on such ques tions as equal rights for women in golf and, more particularly given where much of his money comes from, the sweatshop conditions in many factories in the Far East, right. Woods now has well over $100m of Nike's money in his bank account, just for being covered in swooshes, but claims no knowledge of the sexual and verbal harassment that has been reported from Nike factories in Indonesia. "I'm just a golfer," he's likely to say. "These things are unfortunate but that's the way the world is." No Arthur Ashe, he.

9: Some of his biggest fans are in the Shenzhen tax office in mainland China, left, close to Hong Kong, who were said to be "overwhelmed" when a cheque for $250,000 fell through their letter box. It was from Woods's management, who were making payment on a $2m appearance fee, covering two days of exhibitions and clinics, for their client. It was said to have made Woods one of the biggest taxpayers in all China.

10: No camera can capture Woods sharply when in action. The American magazine Golf Digest has a special high-speed camera for swing sequences. It is called a Hulcher and had never failed the magazine, until it tried to get a shot of Tiger at impact. But Woods swings the club at anything up to 130mph and he was just too fast. The average good club member swings at about 90mph.

11: He may, in the interests of team harmony, play a game or two at the Belfry with Phil Mickelson but don't look for any happy chat on the way round. The scuttlebutt is that Mickelson loathes Woods, perhaps because he realises that, for as long as he is there, the chances of him winning his first major championship are hugely reduced.

12: Although he is probably the most recognisable athlete in the world at the moment Woods hasn't always been so well known. In 1995 Sandy Lyle was playing in the Los Angeles Open and Woods was also competing as an invited amateur. Lyle was asked what he thought of Tiger Woods and answered innocently, "I don't know. I've never played there."

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