I'm a normal guy, says £4.2bn Tiger

And Woods can stipulate there be no questions about his personal life, his recent public spat with US PGA commissioner Tim Fincham, or - oddly - his workout regime.

Most celebs would be laughed out of town if they laid down such laws. Not Woods. His celebrity is not so much in its own league as its own galaxy.

We talked in his first floor suite at the Dorchester. Two heavies stood outside, wires protruding from their ears. Woods was ushered in, clad head-to-toe in Gary Player black. I have seen him at close range before, following him round Open links and Ryder Cup courses, yet face-to-face he seemed suddenly smaller and lighter than expected.

"Sometimes the scale of my celebrity can astonish me," he admitted. "At tournaments it's understandable. But away from those surroundings it can be a little shocking at times.

"You get accustomed to it. You don't even notice it any more because it happens so much. I do the same things everyone else does. I go to the grocery store to get my own groceries, I go shopping, I get my own clothes.

"Sometimes I'm stared at when I do those things. But it's not as bad as people think. I've always been raised to just be myself. I am who I am."

It is a phrase he repeats several times during our allotted 11 minutes.

He is difficult to interview, not because he is in unhelpful - far from it - but because he is so polished. He has heard so many questions over such a short time that quite understandably he tends to give largely the same answers no matter what the individual query.

Controversy is always avoided. It is fruitless, for example, to try to draw him on the subject of money. He calls the £38m he has earned this year a "by-product" of his job. Asked how much money one guy could need, he replied: "The ironic part is that as a player and a competitor that's not what drives you. It's not about the money."

The sheer numbers involved in his earnings are unprecedented. Surely he must be awed by it sometimes?

"If I play well, if I accomplish the things I want to accomplish on the golf course, then those things will come. That to me is the ultimate reward - to be able to go out and work as hard as I do, to build towards the things I want to accomplish. So it's just a by-product."

Yet ask him if he ever imagined his fame and money would become so big when he was growing up, and Woods needs to pause before answering, as if to suggest momentarily he actually foresaw all this.

"Probably not," he said. "I knew what I wanted to accomplish, but no one can prepare you for the things that come with it. You can talk to a friend who has attained some similar status, or to a person who has gone through it, but ultimately you just have to go through it yourself."

Not for one moment in childhood did he ever want to rebel against the path his parents laid for him.

"My parents encouraged me to do other things anyway. I liked playing other sports - baseball and running - but I never loved them. I knew I loved golf."

He loves it still. He never tires of it. He yearns to improve his swing which he "struggles" with.

Golf occupies almost his whole self, to the extent he cannot answer when asked what he spends his money on: "I don't know. I don't go out a whole lot. I just stay home."

Home is actually under construction - a mansion he and his girl-friend Joanna Jagoda are having built outside Orlando, Florida.

"Do I feel like a normal 24-year-old? Sure. I believe I relate to other guys my age. Granted my life is a little bit different. But I have a job like anyone else does. The only difference with my job is I travel round the world."

Yes, that, and the £38m maybe, and the Am Ex employee panting in the background for that question on their new product. I asked Woods if he wanted to tell me anything about Green Card. Woods seemed to be expecting a different kind of question, something about the sheer wonder of the product perhaps.

"Great question," he said wryly, then went into corporate mode. "Being associated with American Express since 1997 has been an enjoyable experience. I enjoy working with them, and hopefully growing and promoting their brand."

Brand promotion. Welcome to the romantic world of sport in the 21st century.