In racy text messages to one of his alleged mistresses, Tiger Woods reportedly refers to himself as 'Blasian' - short for Black and Asian. But even as the year's biggest sports scandal goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, the marketability of the world's number-one golfer across this continent isn't likely to be affected.
When the US PGA Tour announced plans this week for a 2010 event at the Mines Resort in Kuala Lumpur, the organisers declared it would be a rare chance to see Woods and the sport's other brightest stars in Southeast Asia. His personal problems weren't mentioned, apart from the fact that he'd 'been in the news a lot lately'.
Meanwhile, Tenniel Chu, the executive director of Mission Hills Golf Club, declared that the American would still be welcome at the Shenzhen complex at any time.
'I don't think his private life will diminish the respect and admiration Tiger receives for his unique abilities as a golfer,' Chu said. 'The fact that he is half-Asian has made him such a great ambassador for the sport in this part of the world and I think Tiger's name will continue to resonate with golfers in China.'
Edward Thangarajah, the former sports editor and still columnist of the Bangkok Post, penned a strongly worded column headlined, 'When Will the Humiliation End?', defending the 33-year-old whose mother, Kultida, was born in Thailand.
'It was only a storm in a tea cup,' Thangarajah wrote. 'Only the accident and the heroic manner [in which] Tiger Woods' wife Elin smashed open the car to release her husband really matter. Beyond that, it is strictly a private matter between a husband and wife.'
In 2001, during his first trip to China, Woods described himself as 'predominantly Asian because the majority of my blood is Asian'. He added that because he was raised mostly by his mother, Asian culture was the one that he felt 'at peace with'. He is also a Buddhist.