'Cigar Guy' Becomes Latest Internet Sensation

A mysterious, mustachioed, cigar-chomping golf fan caught in the background of an Tiger Woods photo has become the latest Internet sensation.

The "Cigar Guy" has become the focus of hundreds website posts around the world.

On Sunday British newspaper The Daily Mail  printed a photo of Woods at the Ryder Cup in Wales "duffing" a golf ball straight towards the camera of one of their photographers. ( See the photo.)

The nervy photographer did not budge, capturing the extraordinary image an instant before the ball smashed his camera and careened off his chest.

As the photo spread across the Web, the focus soon turned from Woods to the flamboyantly-dressed spectator, who one blogger likened to "the genetic pairing of Groucho Marx and Jonny Quest's adopted brother Hadji."

"Cigar Guy" has gone on to be the subject of hundreds of Photoshop tributes. One Tumblr blog has some of the best.

Another gallery depicts "Cigar Guy" Photoshopped into a series of classic sports images, including "The Greatest" Muhammad Ali standing triumphantly over a knocked-out Sonny Liston and Michael Jordan about to release "The Shot" against the Cleveland Cavs.

The Dallas Observer contributed its own gallery of iconic album covers featuring the Internet star, including The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

"Looking like one of the Mario Brothers and chomping a cigar at a major golf match may be a more effective way of becoming a celebrity than releasing a sex tape," one blogger surmised on AOL News.

Cox Media Group