Craig Parry, the little Aussie battler who has had more success than most against Tiger Woods, has offered to share his intimate knowledge of the Melbourne sandbelt with Woods during the American's first look at Kingston Heath tomorrow.

In local golf's version of Sleeping with the Enemy, Parry called the world's No.1 player last week and offered his services as a local guide to Kingston Heath in Tuesday's practice round. That means 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.

Certainly, the conditions he encounters this week will be quite different to what he's used to on the US PGA Tour and, with the stimpmeter rolling at about 11, Kingston Heath's greens will offer a vastly more difficult challenge to the manicured dartboards he putted on in Shanghai last week.

Since being paired together in the first two rounds of the 1995 Scottish Open at Carnoustie, when Woods was still an amateur, Parry has played alongside the American many times. And like other Australian players such as Stuart Appleby and Rod Pampling, he has established a good rapport with the game's greatest player.

Yet he has fared well against Woods in their head-to-head meetings. Parry was the architect of the International team's 1998 Presidents Cup victory over the Woods-led Americans at Royal Melbourne. And when paired in the foursomes with Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, Parry holed a chip shot from the rough besides the 18th green to steal victory from underneath the nose of Woods and his partner Fred Couples. It remains one of the great clutch shots played at the fabled course.

Woods has played in Australia three times - 1996 Australian Open in Sydney, 1997 Australian Masters at Huntingdale and the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne - but is yet to come away with a win. In Woods' only other visit to this part of the world - in the 2002 New Zealand Open - it was Parry who brought the maestro undone, taking the title at Paraparaumu while relegating the tournament drawcard to sixth place.

"I called his people and offered to show him some of the tricks of playing the sandbelt," Parry told The Toy Department today. "There are so many subtleties to these courses that I thought I might be able to give Tiger a tip or two; it's a very different deal to playing the average US Tour layout." Parry was waiting to hear back from Woods this afternoon but, should the American take up his offer, they will hit off very early tomorrow for their master-and-apprentice round.

Parry, who has won tournaments at both Royal Melbourne and Huntingdale - but has managed a best placing of third at Kingston Heath - said Woods was clearly the man to beat this week in the Masters but warned that, unless he does his homework, the tight Kingston Heath layout and firm fairways and greens might bring him undone.