If Tiger Woods' old swing coach, Hank Haney, is to be believed, Yes. He did. Haney, you may recall has a book, The Big Miss, coming out just in time for the Masters. Excerpts were leaked in Golf Digest a few weeks ago, but The New York Times reviewed the book yesterday and noted an interesting assertion not revealed by Golf Digest.

Haney says he was told Woods tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in an exercise with the SEALs, not while running at home. Haney grew concerned about Woods's workouts and his focus on weight lifting. Haney thought Woods was "inordinately interested in muscle-building," which Haney believed did not help Woods's game and led to injuries. He says that Woods injured his right Achilles' tendon doing Olympic-style lifts, not while running during testing for new Nike shoes, as he publicly stated.


Aside from a sad story about some sugar free popsicles, the Times writeup does not really have anything much more exciting. Thank goodness for the New York Post. Here we learn all kinds of fun stuff like "[w]hen Tiger first got to Stanford, [golfer] Notah Begay called him Urkel." The Post also informs that Tiger is a horrible, horrible prankster. Before the 2006 Ryder Cup, Tom Lehmen had teammates share a hotel room and Tiger and the "devout Christian" Zack Johnson boarded up together.

Tiger "immediately purchased the adult-movie 24-hour package and turned the television on." Johnson ignored the porn. "It was so funny watching him acting like everything was normal," Woods told Haney. "I got him pretty good."


Both the Times and Post writeups go to great lengths to stick up for Haney for releasing both the mundane and salacious glimpse into Tiger's personal life. Haney has a lot of respect for Tiger, Tiger is the best, being Tiger is the hardest thing to do.

Yeah, yeah, sure. But what about that knee? Maybe we'll find out at The Masters.

h/t Kal

Woods's Distractions Detailed by His Ex-Coach [NY Times]

Book reveals Tiger's takeaway from sex-addiction rehab [NY Post]