Even so, a picture of his caddie Joe La Cava during a practice round for this week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines still had us doing a double-take at a logo we’d not noticed before.

On closer inspection, La Cava, who joined forces with Woods in September 2011, appears to be wearing the logo of The Manitowoc Company on his right sleeve.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, The Manitowoc Company dates back to 1902 and is a Fortune 1000 manufacturer of cranes. That’s right – cranes.

We’ve double-checked Tiger’s most up-to-date list of sponsors and there’s no sign of Manitowoc, so it appears that Joe has a deal all of his own.

It also doesn’t appear to be anything particularly new. A quick rustle through the image library reveals that he has been wearing the Manitowoc logo on tour for at least four years. Here he is with Woods at the 2013 Honda Classic.

Prior to that, he wore the logo of American sports bar chain ‘Yard House’ on both his sleeve and the top left patch of his polo shirt.

Interestingly, Woods’ former caddie, Steve Williams, has a long-standing deal of his own with Valvoline Oil.

A keen speedway racer in his downtime, the New Zealander transferred his association with Valvoline from the track to the fairway back in February 2003. He was still sporting the logo during his most recent outing with current employer Adam Scott in Australia towards the end of last year.

Could more ‘caddie only’ deals be the way of the future? We wouldn’t bet against it.