Tiger Woods once baffled and irritated a group of Navy SEALs when he didn’t pick up the check for lunch

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The downfall of Tiger Woods, both on and off the golf course, remains one of the most perplexing stories in all of sports.

Woods, who turned 40 in December, is indefinitely sidelined from golf as a result of multiple back surgeries. Still, in the past few months he has been the subject of several lengthy profiles. These pieces have all tried to answer the same question: What happened to Tiger?

The latest installment is a 12,000-word ESPN the Magazine story by Wright Thompson, who explores the relationship between Woods and his late father, Earl, especially after Earl Woods died in 2006.

Woods' father was a Green Beret, and after he died, Woods became obsessed with the Navy SEALs. He often visited their private training facilities, skydived regularly with them, and went through complex combat scenarios that included close-combat exercises and simulated raids. Thompson reports that Woods' obsession became so intense that his close inner-circle once staged an intervention, worried he wasn't focused on golf and might quit the sport to enlist.

One anecdote in particular stands out, though. From Thompson:

Then there's the story of the lunch, which spread throughout the Naval Special Warfare community. Guys still tell it, almost a decade later. Tiger and a group of five or six went to a diner in La Posta. The waitress brought the check and the table went silent, according to two people there that day. Nobody said anything and neither did Tiger, and the other guys sort of looked at one another.

Finally one of the SEALs said, "Separate checks, please."

The waitress walked away.

"We are all baffled," says one SEAL, a veteran of numerous combat deployments. "We are sitting there with Tiger Woods, who probably makes more than all of us combined in a day. He's shooting our ammo, taking our time..."