Craig Parry spent the best part of three days by Tiger Woods' side during the American's successful visit to the Australian Masters 12 months ago, but never once had an inkling of the double-life the world's greatest golfer was living while in Melbourne.

Well, perhaps one small inkling. As they strode around Kingston Heath together in Tuesday's practice round, and then the opening two rounds of the tournament on Thursday and Friday, the roly-poly Australian and the lean, dapper American got talking about all sorts of things outside golf.

Because, mid-round, Tiger would prefer to discuss anything apart from golf, unless it's the finer points of course architecture.

Woods mentioned that his mother, Kultida, who was travelling with him that week, had been to the theatre at least twice while in Melbourne and had urged her son to join her. But Parry said Tiger had told his mum: thanks but no thanks, but I'm more than happy staying in.

When you combine that mundane snippet of information with reports from tournament organizers and JB Were sponsors and even Australian IMG officials that Woods was very hard to get hold of that week after dark - he even left the official tournament dinner at Crown early to play the tables - then the ensuing revelations began to make sense.

Because Tiger, as we now know, had brought with him to Melbourne and Crown Towers not just his mother, his golf clubs, his luggage and his IMG manager, Mark Steinberg, but a friend by the name of Rachel Uchitel, a New York ‘nightclub hostess'.

Her presence in the Woods entourage was soon picked up by the US tabloid National Enquirer and then the TMZ celebrity website and, in no time, sordid details of his affairs with not just Uchitel but a dozen or more women were being uncovered and published almost daily. That frenzy of diabolical publicity killed off his career temporarily, and his marriage permanently.

His reputation as sport's most marketable commodity took such a battering it will never fully recover. His on-course reputation, however, might yet be retrievable.

But neither Parry, nor anyone else at Kingston Heath 12 months ago, could have imagined how events would unfold so dramatically in 2010.

The everyman hero of Australian golf had even called Woods in the lead-up to the Australian Masters and asked if he'd like a personal crash-course in how to play the tricky nuances of Kingston Heath, rated the No.2 course in the country.

So, in local golf's version of Sleeping with the Enemy, Parry became Woods' local guide in Tuesday's practice round, showing him the subtleties of a hard, fast sandbelt course in the middle of a mini-heatwave - the sort of layout that Woods might get to play once or twice a year, at most.

As fate would have it, they were chosen in the same group - with Pampling - for the first two rounds of the tournament.

To 'Popeye', his American friend seemed pretty much the same guy he'd played alongside for many years on the US PGA Tour, and in two Presidents Cups: in control, focussed, competitive, in form.

‘'He was the same old Tiger,'' Parry told BackPageLead earlier this year. ‘'The same guy I'd played with many times before. He seemed very relaxed and it probably helped that he was playing with two guys he knew quite well in Rod Pampling and me.

‘'He was picking my brains about the sea breezes and prevailing winds. He was doing his homework. At one point on the ninth hole on the Friday - which was our last hole that day - we were waiting for Pamps to hit and I remarked on the beautiful bunkering down both sides of the fairway. He said that was one of the main reasons he came down to Melbourne: to look at Alister Mackenzie's bunkering and get inspiration for his course designs.

‘'There are not many times in a year where he'd play hard, fast conditions like we get in Melbourne. Maybe sometimes in Texas and at the British Open, but not often. Still, he understands how to play golf courses in that condition. He respected the golf course. He didn't go around blasting drivers off the tee like some players would, he took four irons off the tee sometimes and carefully negotiated his way around the course. Not many overseas players who come here show the sandbelt courses that sort of respect.

‘'He was as talkative as ever but it's never usually about golf. Anything but golf.''

Parry said he was absolutely blown away when, a week or so later, the first revelations about Woods' Melbourne trip - and the company he was keeping - began to emerge in the US.

‘'I thought like everyone that he was a great role model and family man. I couldn't believe it. Most players, as far as I'm aware, had the same view of Tiger as the public: that he was a great thing for golf for all the right reasons.

‘'I didn't get up at 3am to watch his televised apology (in March) but I saw it later. The people he needed to apologise to were his wife and children. They're the ones who've been most hurt by this. But I absolutely felt it was necessary that he make a public apology and be called to account for what's happened. Because there's only one person to blame and that's himself.''

But, in Parry's mind, that is all in the past. He still calls Woods a friend, and will be teeing up again with the former world No.1 - although not in the same group - when the Masters starts at Victoria Golf Club on Thursday.

This time, though, he'll be hoping Woods has an uneventful week, maybe even makes it to the theatre once or twice, and then turns in for an early night.