It’s not for me in far-away Australia to accuse Tiger Woods of telling porkies. Perhaps he’s become a little forgetful as he prepares to play in the US Masters on April 8, but I couldn’t help noticing when he claimed in a recent one-off tv interview that no-one in his inner circle knew about his liaisons with a string of women.
‘I’m sure if more people would have known in my inner circle they would’ve stopped it. Or tried to put a stop to it, but I kept it all to myself,’ the golfer told Kelly Tilghman of The Golf Channel.

Tiger's mum - just how furious is she?
New reports about Tiger (sorry, he’s still the talk of the towns) say that his mother, Kultilda, is furious with him over his philandering. I wonder why – because she knew about Rachel Uchitel’s rendezvous with him in Melbourne.
How do I know this? Well, I personally saw Rachel checking in to the Crown Casino and then riding up to the VIP floors where Tiger and his mother were staying. I have all the evidence of this, but putting that aside it must be wondered why ‘mom’ is reported to be putting on such a song and dance about his love life.
Reports say she is hurt and angry because she likes Tiger’s wife Elin and adores her grandchildren and doesn’t want to see them hurt. In that case why on earth didn’t she confront Tiger in Melbourne and ask him what he was doing, flying ‘that woman’ across the world to Australia – then ask her what she thought she was doing there?
It must be wondered just how much real anger there is in Kutilda’s voice.

Master Putters.... ©
I took this and a series of pictures during a visit to Malaysia. These guys were part of a stage show, demonstrating their skills at putting. Their trainer told me they’d also shown their prowess on a nearby golf course and they were ready to take on all challengers.
Enough said. I took up the challenge and the following day we headed to the championship course. Hey, they were good. Too good. Over three holes (orang-utans do get bored) I was hammered. Mind you, they did cheat, kicking my ball into the bushes and knocking it into a pond, but on the putting green they were true professionals. Two winning holes to the apes, one to me. Boo.
I should point out that these orang-utans were rescued by the owner from a circus and had already been trained to perform before he acquired them. My inquiries revealed there was little hope of rehabilitating them back to the wild and they were best left to enjoy the life they were currently living. They loved mixing with people, they were happy, under no stress and, I was reliably informed, should be left to live out their old age with humans.
As for those other unfortunate animals that are losing their habitat and are killed or harmed in clashes with humans taking over their environment for profit – look at the palm oil industry which is destroying their forests – I’m right behind the fight to keep their natural homes. More on this in the new year.
(More pictures in the photo gallery and through Rex Features of London)

Holly Sampson neither confirms nor denies liaison with Tiger
With each day’s match play in the world’s media, Tiger’s score is improving and at last count he was said to be eight under. So to speak.

