He paved the way for Tiger Woods and racial equality in golf, but he also gambles with a passion and taught current world number one Vijay Singh to swear.

He is a multi-millionaire and multiple PGA and Champions Tour winner but began life as a roguish hustler, scamming his way to $5,000 here and $50,000 there.

Jim Thorpe is a walking auto-biography and a man who still hits a mean golf ball.

The 55-year-old was in Bermuda this week with old friend ? and another former PGA player ? Kim Swan, taking part in the Sir John Plowman Classic at Riddell?s Bay and Belmont.

And Thorpe, whose swing has been described as ?so full of moving parts it appears he is fighting off a swarm of hornets in a phone booth?, likes what he sees on the Island and is promising a return.

?I have seen two courses here and I love them both,? said Thorpe, who was a Morgan State running back before a long-term injury made him realise golf was the game for him.

?This is such a great island I will be back for return visits to see my mate Kim. Everyone is so friendly, I?ve been all over the place but never here but I will be back ? you can bet money on it.?

And betting money is something Thorpe, a three-times winner on the PGA Tour and nine times winner on the Champions Tour, is not afraid to do.

Casinos, horses, poker, golf hustling, you name it, the ninth of 12 children who grew up next to the eighth fairway at Roxboro Golf Club has tried them all throughout his time, and would still be playing for paper bags full of cash against drug dealers and pimps if it wasn?t for the influence of his wife Carol.

He played for up to $55,000 in his early years, before his wife suggested that if he was to play golf, he do it properly.

This proved to be a turning point and allowed Thorpe, who now has two grown-up daughters, to become the first black player to lead the US Open, which he did in 1981 at Merion.

Going on to win the 1985 Greater Milwaukee Open and two matchplay titles in Tucson, he was somewhat of a pioneer in a game that suffered from acute racism in its early years.

?I was lucky that some great men went before me,? said Thorpe, keen to play down his enormous role in bringing racial equality to the sport.

?Those guys were the ones that paved the way for people like me. I can?t say that I really suffered from any racism, not that I noticed. It wasn?t something that affected me, although maybe it was out there.

?People have said that I helped pave the way for people like Tiger Woods and maybe I did that a bit. By the time I finished playing, and certainly nowadays, you are judged on how well you hit the golf ball rather than the colour of skin ? that is the way it should be.?

Even though there were many times that Thorpe could have been knocked off the straight and narrow, particularly in his early years, it has all come up smelling of oleanders for the affable pro.

After 20 years of ploughing along on the PGA Tour, he worked hard on his game during the transition to the over-50s circuit and it paid off, literally, in the following years.

Two victories in 2001 earned him $1,827, 223 in prize money, only $100,000 less than 20 years on the PGA.

?The Champions Tour has been wonderful for me,? continued Thorpe, who was nothing but the perfect gentleman during his trip to the Island, where he even offered a demonstration in the Riddell?s Bay clubhouse after rain put a damper on everyone?s day out.

?I would say I am definitely a better player now, relatively, and I am also having a lot of fun with it. If someone said to me 25 years ago that I could go out in 2004 and make a million a year playing golf with my mates then I wouldn?t have believed it.

?I would like to thank corporate America for pumping money into golf because the Champions Tour is really helping finance my gambling.

?It is a lot of fun out there. Good players are being competitive but keeping smiles on their faces and the fans are loving it too.?

So when will Thorpe haul himself back to Bermuda to look round our other courses?

?Well next time I come back, I hope my mate Kim has used his influence in Government and there is a casino here ? if he does that I think I?ll probably move here for good.?