Tiger Woods' first agent, Hughes Norton, has broken his silence on the "worst part" of his relationship with the golfing legend. Despite not having spoken to the 15-time major winner since being dismissed by him, Norton has criticised Woods' social skills.
The former superagent represented Woods - who is currently in training for the upcoming PGA Championship at Valhalla - for two years from 1996 when the golfer turned professional at just 20. Norton had initially met Woods and his father Earl seven years prior, when he was employed as a junior talent scout at IMG.
During his career, Norton worked with a host of golfing greats, including Greg Norman, whom he represented for 11 years. Despite securing record-setting sponsorship deals for Woods, Norton's dismissal led to IMG also severing ties.
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Woods continued with the sports agency under the representation of Mark Steinberg, who remains his agent today. Meanwhile, Norton was bound by a decade-long confidentiality agreement as part of his substantial payoff and was prohibited from competing against the company.
Although he never returned to the industry, Norton has now shared his experiences in his recently published memoir 'Rainmaker', where he doesn't hold back on his split with Woods.
In an interview with Today's Golfer, Norton shared his feelings of betrayal after Tiger Woods abruptly ended their relationship. He said, "For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US."
"The worst part honestly was that there was no explanation," Norton said. "It's just so bizarre the way Tiger severs relationships with people in his life, whether it's caddies or girlfriends or managers. I would love to sit down with Tiger today and say, 'Flashback 25 years, what was the reason?
"You never gave me any indication that something was wrong or that you weren't happy'. That leads into my feelings of betrayal because it was very tough to swallow," before later remarking: "He was pretty disloyal to say, 'See you later', after such a short time."
Hughes continued: "Tiger was unbelievably self-centred. He focused on one thing and one thing only from an early age, which was to become the greatest golfer in the history of the game.
"He was quite selfish; his needs were all that mattered. He never really learned how to interact with people, so there was a total lack of empathy."
The former agent acknowledged that when recalling how an "emotionless Tiger stood zombie-like" when delivering the news.
That was the last time they interacted. Hughes also believes Woods going from an amateur to Masters champion to world No.1 within 12 months left him uneasy. "Fame was something that was uncomfortable for Tiger," he recalled.
"It really was. It was an intrusion into his life."
Hughes recalled a moment that perfectly encapsulates this, stating: "At one point he said, 'You know there's this $40 million from Nike, $20 million from Titleist, it's paper money'.
"He picked up a winner's cheque from a tournament he'd just won and said, 'See this, this $300,000 I won in Las Vegas, that's real to me. This other stuff is paper money. It's an interesting outlook but it showed you how narrow-focused he was."
