Tiger Woods: Conflicting Reports Surround Tiger, Navy SEALs and Injury

If Hank Haney can be taken at his word, Tiger Woods tore his ACL while training like a Navy SEAL.

Haney is in a position to know. He was Tiger's swing coach from 2004 to 2010. However, he is also in a position to fabricate stories. The two have had some acrimonious moments since their separation, and Haney has a new book coming out—that he presumably would like to sell well. 

The book, The Big Miss, is where Haney asserts the true cause of the injury. Nalia-Jean Meyers and Julie Bosman revealed this information in a report in The New York Times: "Haney says he was told Woods tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in an exercise with the SEALs, not while running at home."

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They report that the book details Woods had a growing obsession with SEALs in 2007 shortly after his father passed away. 

Fox Sports' Robert Lusetich added this bit of insight from the book: 

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[Woods] was obsessed with becoming a SEAL and undertook "a program that approximated the training for a Navy SEAL candidate.

"The purpose was a sort of 'dry run' to determine whether he could physically and mentally handle the demands, and if so, whether he wanted to go forward with actually becoming a Navy SEAL."

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If Woods wanted to truly be a SEAL, it is news to the SEALs. Lusetich quoted SEALs spokesman Capt. William Fenick as saying, "We did give him the opportunity to shoot a couple of guns at our range but as for the reports that he was doing SEALs training, he didn't do that with us."

Taking this into account, Woods could have still injured himself during SEALs training. He just would have been doing the training on his own. 

Maybe someone should just ask Tiger for some clarity on this issue. I'm sure he would be welcome to discussing it. 

Okay, so maybe he wouldn't be open to talking about it. This source of his injury and the extent of his SEALs training is not likely to ever come to light. 

If Woods did more training with the SEALs than what they are admitting to, it is highly doubtful they will ever say, and Tiger is one of the few people ever created that is actually capable of being more clandestine than an elite military unit.

Hank Haney can keep talking about it, but the more he talks, the more his credibility fades. I will say this: Tiger added noticeable bulk during the point of his career in question. He was doing something different. 

It also easier to believe that the injury occurred doing something more strenuous than jogging.