Mark O'Meara effectively wrapped up the "Golfer of the Year" award in the US by beating his young friend, Tiger Woods, to capture the World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth last Sunday. But it was also a highly significant exercise for Woods, in terms of emphasising his worth to Mark McCormack's International Management Group.

Record crowds were drawn to the West Course by the Matchplay debut of the world's number one. And a week previously, he had made a similar impact on the Alfred Dunhill Cup.

Both these events are organised by IMG, whose prime golfing client is Woods. So the arrangement is clearly to their mutual benefit, which explains the extent to which IMG are prepared to indulge the 22-year-old, even at a cost to one of their senior employees.

Having lost such notable clients as Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Nick Price in recent years, IMG are not prepared to run the risk of having Woods go the same route. As a consequence, Hughes Norton, once the guiding force behind Norman's huge commercial appeal, has been forced to take a public reprimand from Woods.

But he's not pleased at having been effectively fired as Woods's manager. "It's hard to understand Tiger's decision," he said. "He earns more per endorsement than any athlete in the world, including Michael Jordan."

Norton, who set up £100 million worth of deals for Woods, went on: "I am very proud of the job I did for him. From the day he turned pro, Tiger has been set up professionally for the rest of his life."

According to the player's father, Earl Woods, last week, Norton had placed too much emphasis on commercial activities to the detriment of his client's golf. "How can Earl say that the business stuff has been a tremendous weight and affected Tiger's performance on the course?" questioned the 50-year-old graduate of Harvard Business School. "Tiger has been ranked number one all year."

But Earl Woods remains unrepentant about his accusation that Norton was interested only in the "almighty dollar". He said: "Hughes underestimated Tiger's growth as a person and his grasp of his own business dealings." And the father promised: "You'll see a new Tiger now."

The player said: "This is a change that I needed to make in my life. It was the right time; that's about it. I'm very comfortable with the position I'm in right now and I'm very happy."

So, there will be no new commercial contracts for him, at least not for the foreseeable future. Woods, who has major deals with Nike, Titleist, Rolex, American Express, All Star Cafe, Wheaties and Warner Books, has six years to run on his contract with IMG, but it is clear that his father will play a more prominent role in his affairs.

Meanwhile, the appearance of himself and O'Meara in the final of the Matchplay gave the event a huge lift from an American standpoint. US audiences would have seen their's as arguably the most high-profile clash in the event since Jack Nicklaus, then the reigning British Open champion, beat Lee Trevino by 2 and 1 in the 1970 final.

As it happened, O'Meara became the 17th out of a total of 19 Matchplay champions to be a "major" winner. The two exceptions were Australia's Graham Marsh in 1977 and Japan's Isao Aoki the following year.

For Norman, today is a red-letter day. The Shark is to have his first full round of golf in six months when he plays at the Medallist Club in Florida. But there will be no milling throng, like he would have experienced in three World Matchplay victories: the "attendance" at the exclusive club will be limited to Norman's caddie Tony Navarro, his manager Bart Collins and the player's faithful labrador, named "Fosters".

Norman's last competitive round culminated in a missed cut in the US Masters last April. He then underwent surgery on a damaged left shoulder and is scheduled to make a competitive return in the Shark Shootout at Sherwood CC, California, from November 13th to 15th.

"I feel fitter than I've done at any time in my life," he said yesterday. "The shoulder has healed perfectly and I consider myself to be tournament fit right now."

He added: "My schedule now is to continue practising for the next two weeks and then take 10 days off. That's the way the doctors want me to do it." Sadly, it all comes too late for his many, early-season supporters in The Irish Times "Golf Masters"!

But they would have profited from the consistency of Jim Furyk, who gained an overdue victory in the Las Vegas Invitational on Sunday. It was only his third tournament victory on the USPGA Tour and a repeat of his debut triumph at Las Vegas in 1992.

The climax of Sunday's event was characterised by shots of exemplary courage under pressure. The first of them came from Furyk's closest challenger, Mark Calcavecchia, who smashed a hard eight-iron of 171 yards to within three feet of the final hole for a closing birdie.

It meant that the leader eventually had to get up and down from a back bunker to win. And Furyk did it impressively, holing an eight-foot par putt for a one-shot victory.

Three months ago, Furyk played at Ballybunion before heading to Royal Birkdale where he was fourth behind O'Meara in the British Open. Now, his latest tournament win has come on the same day that O'Meara, another Ballybunion visitor that week, triumphed at Wentworth.