Forget the Tiger Woods v Steve Williams spat. The other fascinating subplot to this week's Presidents Cup is the fraught and testy relationship between Woods and the captain of the International team, Greg Norman. 

The two players who have dominated the world No.1 ranking over the past 20 years - Norman for 331 weeks before handing the mantle over to Woods on January 11, 1998, which marked the start of the American's 623 weeks at the helm - have not exactly formed a No.1 bond away from the course. And much of the ill-will, it has to be said, has come from the Australian's corner. 

Carbon-dating the source of the angst is difficult but it is generally accepted that the trouble began in 1996 when Norman's long-time coach, Butch Harmon, began to spend more and more time with Woods. 

Norman had been working with Harmon since 1992 and won the 1993 British Open during their partnership; Woods became a Harmon student after his third US Amateur victory in August of 1996. There were two big egos there, two men used to getting their own way, and something had to give. There was also the issue of Norman feeling as though he hadn't been paid due respect by the precociously gifted prodigy.

Norman ended up leaving Harmon late in that year. 

In November, soon after the split, Woods made his first trip overseas as a professional - to the Australian Golf Club in Sydney for the Australian Open, an event previously won by, among others, Player, Palmer, Nicklaus and Norman. 

He was just 20 and had been a pro for two months but the hype reached Australia a long time before he did and the crowds that turned up to The Australian that week were enormous. 

But in that opening round, Woods drew a late tee-time, late enough for the wind to have sprung up around Sydney's eastern suburbs and for the smallish greens to suddenly take on the aspect of a medium-sized picnic rug. 

He couldn't tame the tight layout, deep bunkers and slick greens and shot a seven-over 79, a score that was to remain his worst as a professional for six years - until his 81 in the wind and rain at the 2002 British Open. 

Norman won that week - the Australian had an early tee-time on the Thursday - and afterwards couldn't resist a gentle dig at his much-hyped young adversary: "At least he got the flavour of Australian courses," Norman said. "We play very difficult courses here. He got a shock when he shot 79. Perhaps he will appreciate why Australians play so well when they leave home. The first time you play here, you get a deep appreciation of how difficult they can be ... He should find it easier next time.'' 

That snipe pretty much set the tone for their relationship from that day to this. 

In January the following year, Norman was in Melbourne for a tournament launch and took time out afterwards to speak to a couple of local reporters, including your correspondent. 

The subject inevitably turned to Woods, who was reportedly becoming irritated with the constant media and public attention he was attracting since turning pro the previous September.

Norman said that while he had not read the newspaper reports, it came as no surprise to him that golf's wonderchild was becoming increasingly disenchanted with his life in the spotlight. "I feel sorry for him in lots of ways because he doesn't have a life," Norman said. "He's a kid who's 21 years old and he's got all this stuff he's got to do. I know what I was doing at 21, and that was being out there enjoying my bachelorhood and experiencing the fruits of life.

"To be successful in business, in golf or in any field, you've got to trim the fat now and then and maybe he's got to start trimming some of that ancillary stuff that's becoming a bit of a burden on him."

Norman said Woods needed to learn how to cope with the attention and accept that it was part of the whole package of being a top-line sportsman.

"He can't run away from the attention, there's no way in the world he can run away from it," Norman said. "His responsibilities now are huge because of the position he's in - he has responsibilities for the minorities of America, responsibilities for Thailand - he really has got a lot on his plate for a 21-year-old. 

‘'He's got to accept responsibility for who he is and what he represents ... and it will be interesting to see how he handles it."

Their relationship, and Norman's mood, hit a new low at the President's Cup at Royal Melbourne in 1998, coincidentally the one and only time the International team have beaten the US in eight instalments of the competition. 

Such was the International's dominance in the first two days of competition that they led the US by the impregnable margin of 14.5 points to 5.5. 

The rout had the unintended consequence of making the final day's play a complete washout for the US TV broadcaster, CBS. But they quickly realized the one singles match on the final day that might help maintain the ratings was Woods v Norman. 

And once the TV network decided this was the match-up it needed to enliven an otherwise moribund telecast, it was no surprise that, as soon as International team captain Peter Thomson put up Norman's name for the 11th pairing on that Saturday night, Jack Nicklaus immediately countered with Woods. 

The American won a close match on the final hole but Norman remained furious at what he saw as his manipulation by TV execs; that he was being used as a pawn to boost their ratings figures. 

As Norman slipped into retirement in the new millennium, and Woods began perhaps the most dominant run of success in the history of the game, the spat lay dormant. Until the last couple of months. 

Some of the old needle has emerged as the Australian first said he doubted whether Woods would win another major title - leaving him stranded on 14, four short of Jack Nicklaus' record - and then backed up by questioning Woods' selection in the US team at Royal Melbourne, being one of Freddie Couples' two discretionary picks. 

Having been almost silent on the Woods question for ages, Norman chimed in with this double whammy. 

Norman had told Golf Magazine, in its November issue, that Woods now had too many distractions to maintain the focus he had when he won 14 major championships in 11 years and, because of that, didn't think he would win another one. "Tiger, when he dominated, had a single-shot approach,'' said Norman, 56, who won the 1986 and 1993 British Opens. "It was only about the golf."

"Tiger can still play, and I think he'll win again. But he's not going to do what he did before.''

In the interview, Norman said "people are looking for things that are wrong with Tiger now," and that "the more he shuts people off, the worse it gets."

He also took note of Woods' body language on the course since being engulfed in that embarrassing sex scandal in 2009, saying, "He doesn't keep his head up anymore. He's got his eyes down. He's trying to keep his eyes away from the camera, right?"

Asked about the comments at his next press conference, Woods said: "I've heard that before," Woods said of Norman's comments. "It's not the first time I've heard that and I've kept on winning them (majors), too.".

But Norman wasn't finished yet.

Wile promoting his Shark Shootout tournament in Florida last month, Norman said if he were the US captain, he would have chosen PGA Championship winner Keegan Bradley, not Woods, to play for the Americans.

"I can understand the name of a Tiger Woods and his history of what he's done on the golf course," Norman told the Naples Daily News. "But I pick the guys who I think are ready to get in there and play and have performed to the highest levels leading up to it."

To drive home his point, Norman added: "I just don't think he's swinging the golf club the way he used to, when he won all those major championships. He's a different player out there nowadays."

One American golf writer this month - quoting an unnamed source - said: "Tiger and Greg don't speak. There's a lot of animosity between them." 

The writer contended that one reason Woods wanted the word spread about the course-record 62 he shot at the Medalist course in Jupiter, Florida, a few weeks ago is that Norman's best score on the course he co-designed is 64. 

So the ill-will continues a tradition of top-line golfers not getting along: Palmer v Nicklaus, Mickelson v Woods, Hogan v Snead and Faldo v Lyle among them. 

So the niggle between Norman and Woods forms the backdrop for the ninth edition of the Presidents Cup and it is no bad thing. In fact, it might be just the spark the event needs if it is ever to emulate the passion and fanaticism which the Ryder Cup, its template, produces time after time.