After analysing all of Woods's near 800 rounds as a professional, and then matching him with rivals who had a played a minimum of five rounds against him, the world number one was comfortably ahead of the likes of Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk. Vijay Singh was just over half a stroke behind Woods from their 21 confrontations, however, it emerged following a total of six head-to-heads, that none other than Pádraig Harrington was the only player to have got the better of Woods with a scoring average of 68.8 against 69.5.

GREAT SCOTT, TIME TO TAKE A HOLIDAY After winning the prestigious Tour Championship last November, it couldn't be said that Adam Scott exactly abandoned his clubs and put his feet up.

Instead, he travelled to his native Australia for two events, and then he played in Tiger Woods's Target Challenge in California.

So, definitely not a break of Mickelsonesque proportions, but between mid-December and last week's first tournament of the PGA Tour in Hawaii where he finished second, Scott had nearly three weeks off.

What did the extremely fit 26 year-old Aussie, whose second place finish at the Mercedes Championship moved up to a career high of number three in the world rankings, then choose to reveal? That he needed to take a break. Needing a break after the first tournament of the season. Is this a record?

COMING DOWN HARD ON THE GAME'S CHEATS The perception of golf as a whiter than-white game in which players call penalties on themselves remains intact for the most part, but the human condition being what it is, cheating continues to be an issue.

It was announced recently that Ai Takinami, a player on the Japan LPGA, had been banned for 10 years for altering her scorecard in a qualifying tournament. The 26-yearold changed her score on two holes, and won't be permitted to compete in Japan LPGA events, or to accept money for teaching, until 2016.