THE news of golfer Tiger Woods having had extra-marital affairs with at least 10 women who are claiming to have had sexual relations with him should cause the late Jack Johnson to turn in his grave with envy.

The world's first black heavyweight boxing champion was forced to flee the country of his birth, the US, for having consensual sex with a white woman.

This led to Johnson's conviction in 1913 for violation of that country's racially based laws of the time - a conviction for which he has yet to be officially pardoned 96 years down the line and more than 60 years after his death.

The fact that amid all these allegations Woods rightfully continues to enjoy the support of major companies, whose endorsements have helped make the golfer one of the richest sportsmen in the world, should make him thank his ancestors that he was not born during Johnson's time.

Woods should also be thankful that his fellow African-Americans do not (at least for now) mock him as a "coconut", as was the case with fallen American football star and actor OJ Simpson, for his apparent penchant for white women.

Diliza Majola, Johannesburg