Tiger Woods-Navy SEAL stories not going away any time soon

If you thought the Tiger Woods, Navy SEAL stories were all but over following an icy exchange with golf writer Alex Miceli at the Honda Classic … guess again.

Just days after GolfDigest.com released the first excerpt from Hany Haney’s new book, the golf magazine released a lengthier excerpt on Tuesday that revealed even more about Woods’ link to the Navy SEALs.

As Shane Bacon from CBS’s Eye On Golf blog first pointed out, the infatuation with the Navy SEALs apparently hit an almost unhealthy level prior to the 2006 U.S. Open, when Woods decided to go on a three-day parachute training session just 18 days before the major championship.

The decision prompted Hank Haney to send a lengthy e-mail, questioning Woods’ decision to put his body through the ringer before playing in what most consider to be the most grueling test in golf.

Here’s what Haney said:

With the U.S. Open 18 days away, do you think it was a good idea to go on a Navy SEALs mission? You need to get that whole SEALs thing out of your system and stick to playing Navy SEAL on the video games. I can tell by the way you are talking and acting that you still want to become a Navy SEAL. Man, are you crazy? You have history to make in golf and people to influence and help. Focus on your destiny, and that isn’t flushing bad guys out of buildings in Iraq. Just play the video games some more. That Navy SEAL stuff is serious business. They use real bullets.

That’s right: Woods was not only spending time training with the SEALs, he was also spending countless hours playing video games based on Navy SEAL missions. But it didn’t stop there. Woods had also told Haney that the Navy’s most elite group was going to make an age limit exception — the limit was 28 years old — if he wanted to join.

Make of the excerpt what you will, but you have to wonder with more even more info coming out prior to the WGC-Cadillac Championship if someone’s going to be crazy enough to ask Woods another question about the SEALs, or the book, on Wednesday.

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