'I could kill you in two seconds' - Tiger Woods bragged how he could kill his former swing coachBy Daniel Bates
PUBLISHED: 23:32, 19 March 2012 | UPDATED: 08:31, 20 March 2012
www.dailymail.co.ukTiger Woods was so obsessed with Navy SEAL training that he once put his swing coach in a special hold and told him: ‘From here I could kill you in about two seconds’.
The champion golfer - who secretly wanted to join the military - told Hank Haney to stand up then put his arm round his neck so he could not move at all.Faced with the prospect of near-instant death, Haney feebly replied: ‘Please don’t’.
Spilling the beans: Swing coach Hank Haney (left) paints a less than flattering picture of golf pro Tiger Woods (right)In his explosive tell-all book Haney also reveals that Woods became so obsessed with the soldiering he spent most of his spare time playing Navy SEAL computer games or watching the Military Channel on TV.
He became so concerned about the 14-times PGA tour winner that he sent him an email which read: ‘Man, are you crazy?’
It also warned him that his destiny was to be a professional golfer, not to go 'flushing bad guys out of buildings in Iraq'.
Haney’s embarrassing disclosures are in his memoir ‘The Big Miss’, about his years coaching Woods.
Among the claims already reported are that Woods banned his ex-wife Elin Nordegren from smiling when she was on the golf course when he won because he felt he was ‘supposed to win’.
Woods, 36, also wanted to become a Navy SEAL like his father Earl, who was a green beret who served two Army tours in Vietnam.
In an exclusive extract in Golf Digest magazine, Haney claims that self defence was Woods’ ‘favourite topic’ and that he would ‘really wanted to be able to protect his family’.
Haney writes: ‘After his training, he explained about the different martial arts that are incorporated in the SEAL style of hand-to-hand combat. Once, in his living room, he had me stand up so he could demonstrate some moves.
‘He got me in one position with his arm around my neck where I couldn't really move. ‘From here,’ he said, ‘I could kill you in about two seconds.’ I kind of laughed and said: ‘Please don't.’
Another source of tension was Woods going on Navy SEAL training courses instead of training for golf, putting himself at risk of serious injury.
Haney writes that to his knowledge Woods did training in parachuting, self-defense, urban-warfare simulations and shooting, along with diving which he was already accomplished at.Just 18 days ahead of the 2007 US Open, Woods went off on yet another Navy SEAL course and Haney sent him a blunt email expressing his disapproval.
It reads: ‘So 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.’
Haney writes that Woods’ ‘fixation really came out when he played a SEALs video game’.
He says: ‘Tiger would put on headphones, through which an animated commander would give him orders for the next mission to be carried out.
‘The objective was to keep overcoming increasingly difficult tests. Tiger would get totally immersed, sitting on the edge of the couch, as intense and focused as if he were playing in a major championship’.Woods would go running in his army boots and repeatedly watched the official Navy SEAL training DVD to see if he was doing the moves correctly, Haney says.
As the BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEALs) film played yet again Woods would sit there saying: ‘That would be cool’.
Woods’ world came crashing down in 2009 when he was exposed as a serial cheat.
Miss Nordegren divorced him and won a reported $100million settlement as well as custody of Sam Alexis, four, and their son Charlie, three.
Woods’ sponsors also deserted him and he has not won a major tournament since 2010.
The same year Haney left him, but not before he saw the way he had begun to treat his wife.
Three months after the couple married, Miss Nordegren apparently wanted to celebrate her husband’s victory at Torrey Pines.
She suggested they throw a party like they used to when she worked as a nanny for fellow golfer Jesper Parnevik.
But Woods shot her down, saying: ‘E, that’s not what we do. I’m not Jesper. We’re supposed to win.’
Haney adds that the model’s smile ‘got smaller’ as their marriage continued. ‘In the future Elin would keep her emotions under wraps whenever Tiger won’.
Controlling: Tiger Woods told his ex-wife she wasn't allowed to smile on the golf course if he won, according to former swing coach Hank HaneyHaney goes on to write that during their six years together, Woods showed little respect for those around him.
He would make others pay for takeout and simply leaving a restaurant when he was done eating - whether or not those around him had finished.
For months, Haney was afraid to ask Woods for a Popsicle when the golfer was heading to the refrigerator. ‘He never offered me one or ever came back with one,' he writes.
He describes the anguish he felt over Woods’ simple lack of courtesy.
‘It actually took me a while to summon the courage to blurt out: ‘Hey, Bud, do you think I could have one of those Popsicles?’’
Haney also depicts Woods as bad-mannered, cheap, and obsessed with pornography and smutty humour.
Before the 2006 Ryder Cup several golfers, including devout Christian Zach Johnson, shared a hotel room with Woods.
Woods ‘immediately purchased the adult-move 24-hour package and turned it on,’ Haney said, according to an extract in the New York Post.
Johnson had no choice but to ignore the adult programming.
In another damning recollection, Haney writes that when Woods went out to eat with Nordegren, he’d get up and leave and expect her to follow – even if she hadn’t finished her meal.
‘When he was done – and he habitually ate fast – you were done,’ he writes.
Woods has written off the book, calling it ‘unprofessional and very disappointing’
.He told ESPN.com that the book - which will be released prior to this year’s US Masters - was especially hurtful because ‘it’s someone I worked with and trusted as a friend.’
He called Haney’s anecdotes ‘one-sided’ and a cheap way to earn money.
