Dina Gravell-Parr, 34, the alleged Tiger Woods’ first girlfriend, said she met Woods in a high school accounting class and it took him several weeks to pluck up the courage to ask her out.

Dina Gravell said that Woods was really a shy man.

“You could tell he didn't know whether to lunge for a kiss or not. So we had a hug instead.”

She was 17 and Woods was 16 when they met at school in California and began passing notes during class.

Mrs Gravell-Parr, who lives in Corona, California, said their relationship lasted three years and they had talked about getting married.

But she told the newspaper: "It was college. He was a golfer. I don't flatter myself that he was faithful to me."

She said she felt as if she had been punched in the stomach when Woods ended the romance in a letter, saying his parents were worried she was becoming a distraction to his golf.

For years, Mrs Gravell-Parr said, she had been haunted by what might have been.

"I always hear: 'That could have been you,'" she told the paper. But, despite her former flame's success, she said she was relieved that they had not ended up together.

"A family is not happy because of money, a family is happy because of love and respect. I know my husband loves me and would never hurt me, and that is more important than all the money in the world," she said.

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