Hank Haney: Tiger Woods considered leaving golf to become a Navy SEAL

Imagine for just a second what the golf world would be like if Tiger Woods had decided to walk away from the game in the prime of his career. It’s almost impossible to fathom, but in an excerpt from Hank Haney’s soon-to-be-released Tiger tell-all, posted on GolfDigest.com, the instructor confirmed there was a point when Woods considered giving up golf to become a Navy SEAL.

“Tiger was seriously considering becoming a Navy SEAL. 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, 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.”

While the excerpt specify when Woods seriously considered giving up golf, you have to believe it was most likely between 2004 and 2008 (he won six majors during that span), when Haney and Woods were working together.

Woods has a military background and spent four days going through training at Fort Bragg in 2004 — his father, Earl, was also a Green Beret in the US Army — so it shouldn’t come as a total shock that he considered joining the Armed Forces.

[Also: Lacking killer instinct, Rory McIlroy fizzles again in the clutch]

But the fact that he thought about walking away in the prime of his career? Well, that likely means the incredible 2005 Masters chip-in and gutty performance at the 2008 U.S. Open would’ve never happened.

You have to give him credit for wanting to serve his country, but we’re glad he stuck around the golf world and produced some of the most incredible moments in the history of the sport.

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