TIGER WOODS was just 20 when he last played in Sydney, in the Australian Open. He'd won just $US790,000 of the $US94 million he has accumulated on the PGA Tour and, while the sports pages were dominated by the young American phenomenon that week, the most powerful man in the world - US President Bill Clinton - was also in town.
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Woods spoke then of becoming a black leader, a role model, like tennis player Arthur Ashe and the human rights activist clergymen Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, and also of becoming the greatest golfer ever.
Sure, Woods has been back in Australia since. In 1997, he played the Australian Masters at Huntingdale in Melbourne, finishing tied eighth and then played The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in 1998. He came back here to win the 2009 Masters at Melbourne's Kingston Heath layout, just before the scandal of his private life began unfolding, and again last year when he finished fourth behind Stuart Appleby at Victoria GC.
Now, Woods is returning to Sydney and the Australian Open to be played at The Lakes from November 10 to 13 in the week before The Presidents Cup.
Woods joins the already named headline acts of defending champion Geoff Ogilvy, Americans Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson plus the two Presidents Cup captains Fred Couples and Greg Norman. Golf Australia chief executive Stephen Pitt promises there are more big signings to be announced in coming weeks.
The deal to bring Woods to Australia was finalised only three hours before yesterday's lunchtime announcement. Golf Australia consultant Tony Roosenburg had been negotiating with Woods's manager, Mark Steinberg, for three weeks, and a signed contract arrived via email yesterday morning.
Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner's speechwriters moved swiftly: "With Tiger in town, the eyes of the world will again be on Australia's global events city. We caught the Shark and now we have snared the Tiger to give him the chance to join the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Greg Norman, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson on the Open's honour roll," Stoner said.
The Victorian Government paid Woods a reported $US3 million appearance fee at a time when our dollar was worth far less than today's exchange rate of $1.10.
Stoner was asked the obvious question - how much is Destination NSW, the new name for Events NSW, paying for the pleasure of Woods's company?
"It's commercial and in confidence," was the politician's reply. "May I say the return to taxpayers is going to be massive, something like an additional $10 million boost, and we're paying nothing like the Victorians have in past years."
But the Victorians claimed a $30 million boost to their economy in each of the two years Woods appeared. "The Victorians have a very generous spin on how they calculate economic benefits. Our estimation is very conservative," Stoner said.
It is thought the payment is around $2 million.Woods makes his tournament return, after recovering from injury, this week in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio, and will tee up in next week's US PGA Championship.
Pitt insisted yesterday Woods's appearance in the Open was not conditional on him being part of the American Presidents Cup team. Woods is 26th on the pecking order for 10 automatic spots, and it seems Couples must anoint him with one of his two captain's selections to fill out the team.
