BEING a star sportsman has its privileges - fame, fortune and beautiful women.

Just ask Tiger Woods. He married Swedish au pair and model Elin.

Sometimes, however, things go wrong, and you show up for work looking like youshaved with a rusty, six-year-old blade.

John Daly, the golfer with enough personal problems to fill a book he called MyLife In & Out Of The Rough, instead blamed his fourth wife of six years anda steak knife.

The long red scratches he sported last Friday at the St Jude Championship werethe result of assault by his intoxicated better half Sherrie, he claimed.

He was sleeping until the convicted felon, who served five months for moneylaundering last year, started stabbing and cutting his face with a silver steakknife.

She shouted, "I will kill you, you piece of (expletive)," he complained to thepolice.

Sherrie???s side of the story was a little different.

She was awakened by a drunk Daly, who was making sexually-offensive gesturesand remarks. She claimed he then sexually assaulted her.

"Mother would show that Father inflicted injury upon himself by scratching hisface," she told the court as she refiled for divorce, reported The CommercialAppeal.

The couple filed for divorce last October, but attempted to reconcile, afterDaly, who has admitted to losing about US$80 million (S$123 million) incasinos, promised to stop drinking, gambling and carousing with other women.

In her petition on Monday, she claimed her husband has continued his vices.

In January, she said, Daly became drunk on vodka and pulled "a large portion ofhair from her head while throwing her head against the wall".

She said he also tore her shirt and bra and broke a telephone. Both have askedfor restraining orders against each other.

Better than a soap opera, but more than one athlete has had to contend with agorgeous wife who loses it.

Denise, the wife of Bryan Robson, the former England and Manchester Unitedfootball captain, did not take too kindly to finding a crutch under the bed in2000.

Along with it, she found the Sky Sports presenter Claire Tomlinson, whosebroken ankle did not prevent her from trying to fulfil her role as the otherwoman. Denise beat both of them up.

Chris Coleman???s wife of 14 years did not catch him doing anything wrong, butshe tried hard to.

"Driven crazy" by rumours that the former Fulham player and manager wascheating on her with two women, former flower arranger Belinda had a ???2,000(S$6,100) listening device and electronic tracker fitted to his Range Roversometime in March.

She was also said to have been "especially impressed" by the GPS tracingdevice, which pinpointed the location of Coleman???s car at any given time, saidthe Daily Mail.

When the story broke in April, Coleman admitted football had taken a strain onhis marriage. A few days later, he was sacked by the club.

All very mild, compared to some incidents in the US.

A few years ago, Anna Benson, the model wife of pitcher Kris Benson, warnedover radio that she would have sex with all the members of his New York Metsteam if she were ever to learn he had an affair.

They are still together.

But not former St Louis Cardinals pitcher Chris Finley and saucy Tawny Kitaen,the actress who writhed her way to fame on a Jaguar car in the Whitesnake videoof Here I Go Again.

He charged her with spousal battery in 2002, when she made full use of her highheels as the couple were driving home from dinner.

"She kicked him in the thigh, in the leg, in the arm, she grabbed his ear andtwisted it," the police said. "At one point, her high-heel shoe was on top ofhis foot pressing the accelerator to the ground."

Finley filed for divorce three days later.

Spousal abuse also raised its ugly head in the NBA this year.

Jason Kidd, the New Jersey Nets star who once said the kisses he blows beforefree throws were for her, in January filed for divorce from his wife of 10years because of "extreme cruelty over a long period of time".

He accused Joumana of kicking, hitting, punching and throwing household objectsat him as she became "increasingly controlling and manipulative".

According to Kidd, his wife had tracking devices installed on his cars andcomputers and even sneaked into the Nets locker room to rummage through hislocker for his mobile phone.

After looking up the names and numbers on it, she took a front-row seat andshouted insults at Kidd throughout the game.

The All-Star guard, who in 2001 pleaded to striking his wife during anargument, was accused of "years of physical abuse" and "serial infidelity".

Joumana did admit to bugging Kidd???s car but insisted that he knew about it andsuggested that she use the device to confirm he was being faithful.

Infidelity was again the cause when former American footballer Andre Rison losthis home in 1994 in a heated argument with fiance Lisa Nicole Lopes.

She claimed she was only trying to burn his new tennis shoes for cheating onher, but the fire got out of control and the US$2 million mansion was burntdown.

She never showed any remorse later, claiming it was a House of Evil.Rison went on to win a Super Bowl championship with the Green Bay Packers in1996, while Lopes, a singer with the group TLC, tragically lost her life in acar accident in 2002 while doing charity work in Honduras.

Carlita, the estranged wife of Craig Hodges, a three-point specialist andtwo-time NBA champion with Michael Jordan???s Chicago Bulls, tried to go onebetter than Lopes in 1991.

She dumped a small container of gasoline on Hodges and then threw two lightedmatches at him. Good thing both went out before hitting him.

No such luck for Fred Lane, an NFL running back with the Carolina Panthers.

He came home one day in 2000 - only for his wife Deidra to shoot him.When his body was found, the keys were still hanging from the lock.

Police believe she did it for Lane???s US$5 million insurance policy.She claimed her husband had abused her physically and emotionally.