Tiger Woods: Hank Haney's Claim That Golfer Nearly Joined Navy SEALs Is Absurd

Are you a little short on cash and looking to make an easy buck? Did you have any sort of personal or professional relationship with Tiger Woods in recent years?

If you answered yes to the above questions, I've got a little money-making secret for you: write a book about Tiger! It's a guaranteed way to get some cheap publicity and a few easy dollars thrown your way.

You can follow the template of Hank Haney, Tiger's ex-golf coach, who wrote in his new book, The Big Miss: My Years Coaching Tiger Woods, that the golfer seriously considered joining the Navy SEALs. Via The Guardian:

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"I didn't know how he'd go about it but when he talked about it, it was clear he had a plan...I thought: 'Wow, here is Tiger Woods, the greatest athlete on the planet, maybe the greatest athlete ever, right in the middle of his prime, ready to leave it all behind for a military life.'"

Haney detailed four days Woods spent at a special-ops training camp at Fort Bragg, writing: "Tiger did two tandem parachute jumps, engaged in hand-to-hand combat exercises, went on four-mile runs wearing combat boots, and did drills in a wind tunnel."

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Let's get a few things clear here. For one, I highly doubt Woods would have ever actually joined the SEALs and given up his lucrative career. Even after the scandal, golf still offered far more financial comfort than the military ever would.

Secondly, even if Woods did express a desire to join the SEALs—be it as an actual plan or just a daydream he liked to have from time to time—Haney putting that in his book is an obvious attempt to stir up the media pot and earn some easy publicity.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, had the following to say on the matter in an email to FoxSports.com:

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Based on the excerpts published today, Hank Haney's claim that his book is about golf is clearly false. His armchair psychology about Tiger, on matters he admits they didn't even discuss, is ridiculous.

Because of his father, it's no secret that Tiger has always had high respect for the military, so for Haney to twist that admiration into something negative is disrespectful.

The disruptive timing of this book shows that Haney's self-promotion is more important to him than any other person or tournament. What's been written violates the trust between a coach and player and someone also once considered a friend.

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It's hard to disagree with that.

But hey, Haney is just taking the shortest path to easy money that he has at his disposal—writing a book about Tiger.

And if you knew the golfer in any capacity in the past and have something controversial to say about him, that easy money could be yours too!

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