Tiger Woods Is ‘Completely Fearless’, Says Friend — Golfer Once Tried To Swim With Great White Sharks

Tiger Woods has become known for a lot of things over the years; first, for his prowess on the golf course, and then, much to his chagrin, for the scandal surrounding his sex life. But there is much more to the athlete than many people know, and as one friend told Sports Illustrated recently, sometimes his fearless personality is scary to the people who love him.

Charles Howell III and his wife once went on vacation with Woods and his then-wife, Elin Nordegren, to South Africa, and the couples decided to accompany Tiger on a trip to Seal Island one day. The golf legend wanted to try and swim with the great white sharks who often show up in the area, and he was planning on doing it from the safety of a cage. The group threw chum into the water to attract the creatures, but after several hours, none had shown up, and Tiger was getting restless. That’s when he did the unthinkable, Howell says.

“He’s wearing a wet suit to dive into the cage in case any sharks come, and suddenly he just jumps into open water. He’s decided to swim over to the island and get up close to the seals. The guys on the boat are going nuts, shouting for Tiger to come back, but he just keeps swimming, through all the chum. The seals start hopping around and hollering like they do. Tiger is having a great time. After what seems like an eternity, he swims back and casually gets on the boat. He’s just different from normal people, completely fearless,” Howell said.

Because Woods kept a relatively low personal profile during the height of his career, many fans were shocked when it was revealed that he had been unfaithful to Elin with several different women. The couple divorced not long after, and Woods began dating Olympic skiier Lindsey Vonn. Since that relationship unraveled, Woods has been the subject of a lot of speculation regarding his career, specifically whether his game will ever get back to where it was. Following back surgery in 2014, Tiger only finished one game in the top 25 and had some pretty rough numbers during all the tournaments he participated in last year.

Despite some reassurances that he would return to full form on the course, Tiger’s health has been a focus of many sports fans after rumors that he was in so much pain he couldn’t even sit down in a comfortable position.

“This is certainly disappointing, but I’m a fighter. I’ve been told I can make a full recovery, and I have no doubt that I will… It’s one of those things that had to be done. I have an outstanding team of doctors, and I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Woods said in a statement after the surgery.

Tiger took to Instagram a few weeks ago to share a video of himself practicing his swing with the caption “Progressing nicely.” His most recent post was just two weeks ago, when he shared a photo of himself leaning forward in a photo shoot with Rolex.

Tiger: Still no timetable Tiger Woods has revealed he is continuing to work hard on his recovery from back surgery… https://t.co/GLAmsOn3Vm

— eGolfDaily (@eGolfDaily) March 11, 2016

While rumors have been floating around that Tiger Woods is in Augusta to prepare for this year’s golf season–and, by extension, the Masters Tournament–but his agent says there’s no truth to them.

“Tiger was absolutely not in Augusta this past week,” agent Mark Steinberg said, adding that it would be very difficult for Tiger to walk around a city like Augusta without being recognized.

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]