Ex-Coach: Tiger Woods Wanted to Be Navy SEAL

But golfer's agent rejects Hank Haney's claim
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 1, 2012 12:21 AM CST
Ex-Coach: Tiger Woods Wanted to Be Navy SEAL
Tiger Woods arrives in a Military Humvee through red smoke to start a golf exhibition at Fort Bragg, North Carolina after spending a week training with troops in 2004.   (Getty Images)

Tiger Woods considered quitting golf at the height of his career to become a Navy SEAL, according to ex-coach Hank Haney. "I thought, 'Wow, here is Tiger Woods, greatest athlete on the planet, maybe the greatest athlete ever, right in the middle of his prime, basically ready to leave it all behind for a military life,'" Haney writes in his tell-all book about their time together, The Big Miss, reports CBS.

The golfer's agent dismisses the claim as "armchair psychology," accusing Haney—who coached Woods from 2004 until 2010—of twisting Woods' admiration for his father, who was a green beret in the Army and served in Vietnam. "Because of his father, it’s no secret that Tiger has always had high respect for the military," the agent says. Woods himself, when asked about his military ambitions, didn't reveal specifics, but called Haney's decision to write about him "unprofessional and very disappointing." (More Tiger Woods stories.)

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