Tiger Seal: 'Woods Planned To Join Navy Elite'

Tiger Woods had seriously considered giving up his golf career to become a Navy Seal, according to a new book.

The 36-year-old's former swing coach Hank Haney makes the revelation in his soon to be released book The Big Miss.

Mr Haney writes that he tried to convince Woods - whose father Earl was a special forces soldier in Vietnam - not to go on secret training exercises with the Seals but says the golfer was obsessed with joining the Navy's elite fighting unit.

The coach said he told Woods that Seals cannot not be older than 28, hoping to show him it was a pointless ambition.

But he said Woods responded: "It's not a problem. They're making a special age exemption for me."

Mr Haney wrote: "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, basically ready to leave it all behind for a military life'."

According to Mr Haney, Woods undertook dozens of trips to naval bases across the country "in a programme that approximated the training for a Navy Seal candidate".

"To my knowledge, he did training in parachuting, self-defence, urban-warfare simulations and shooting," he claims.

"I never heard of Tiger doing any training in the water with the Seals, but he was already a pretty accomplished diver."

According to the book, Woods talked about a three-day trip during which he parachuted as many as 10 times a day and touted his long-range shooting skills.

"He talked all about the different guns and how to allow for wind and the flight of the bullet, almost as if he were describing a golf shot," Mr Haney writes.

"When I later learned the full truth about the dangerous exercises that Tiger engaged in with the Seals, it caused me to question whether the greatest golfer the game has ever seen severely hampered his chance at surpassing one of the most revered marks in all of sports - Jack Nicklaus' record - because of his fascination with the military."