Tiger Woods is spending the end of his most tumultuous year of his life by travelling the world and playing golf.

On Monday, Tiger was in Japan playing a Monday exhibition against the Tiger Woods of Japan, Ryo Ishikawa. From there, Tiger, along with Ishikawa, headed to Shanghai, China where they will both take part in the HSBC Champions, a World Golf Championship event that beings at midnight tonight, EST.

Directly following the HSBC, Tiger will hop on over to Thailand, to play in another one-day skins game on Monday, Nov. 8. It will be the first time Tiger has played in the homeland of his mother, Kutilda, in 10 years.

The exhibition will be part of the celebration for King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th year of rule. Playing with Woods will be Paul Casey, Camilo Villegas and Thailand’s own Thongchai Jaidee. There will be $300,000 worth of skins up for grabs, which each of the four competitors have pledged will go to charities overseen by the King, which seems a little fishy, but hey, it’s his country.

After a day in Bangkok, Tiger will fly to Melbourne, Australia to defend his title at the Austrailian Masters.

If you recall, it was at the Aussie Masters that the National Enquirer allegedly saw Rachel Uchitel visiting Tiger, giving them the evidence they needed to run their story.

Along with that little tidbit, it seems that the Aussies aren’t exactly breaking down the gates to see the new world No. 2. Only a year ago, 20,000 tickets per day were sold out six weeks in advance. This year, not so much.

Fans can buy the tickets at the gate, but it will cost them $5 more than the $49 pre-sale ticket. I guess Tiger is just washing down his market value with his repeat visit. I wonder if he’s there this year for the appearance fee? Last year it was $3 million.

David Rollo, vice president-director of Golf IMG Australia agrees that Tiger coming back-to-back years is a contributing factor as to why demand is down.

”It was the first time he’d been here in 11 years and, at that time, I guess there were people who thought he may not be here for another chance to see him,” Rollo said. ”So from that point of view, there was no question last year was a unique set of circumstances.”

Following the Aussie Masters, Woods will get a couple weeks off in order to prepare for his Chevron Wold Challenge Presented by Tiger Woods and Benefitting the Tiger Woods Foundation the first week of December.

Odd that he didn’t make a trip to Sweden during all of his travels. It probably has something to do with his being a national villain.