Harry Kane once enjoyed the dream romantic getaway in the Bahamas – then binned off his wife for Tiger Woods.
The Bayern Munich striker is known to be an avid golfer and boasts a mightily impressive handicap of 3.7.
And the 31-year-old, who was then playing his club football at Tottenham, has recalled the time he was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime by gracing the course alongside 15-time golf major winner Woods in 2017.
But unfortunately for his childhood sweetheart Kate, who he shares four children with, it meant she had to play second fiddle during their vacation.
Appearing on the The Rick Shiels Golf Show, he revealed how the chance came about – and how he almost awkwardly snubbed Woods’ invite.
He said: “It’s a great story, I was out in the Bahamas and didn’t know he was there – where we go, you’re on buggies everywhere.
“So I’m travelling on a buggy and was driving past a golf pro I knew there and he was like, ‘Oh H, how you doing?,’ just catching up, I hadn’t seen him in a while.
“He went, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m playing with Tiger this afternoon. You want to play?’
“It was like one of them, ‘Yeah! Just give me a shout’, because the way he said it was just like a throwaway. I didn’t want to seem over keen, I just said, ‘Give me a text when you’re playing.’
“Anyway, I went to the gym, got on with my day, I was with my wife, we had lunch with some friends, we went to their house and I had no signal in the house.
“So I’m sitting there at lunch thinking, ‘I hope he’s not messaging me,’ after a couple hours of lunch, I’m getting out and walking to our house, I get three or four text messages coming through at once.
“It’s the golf pro saying, ‘Tiger said come play the back nine with us,’ and this was like an hour ago.”
Thankfully for Kane he didn’t miss out, eventually linking up with Woods and his mate for the 15th tee.
Recalling his thoughts as he stepped up to the tee box, he remarked: “I’m flustered, I’m nervous, I’m excited, I’ve not warmed up, just driven to the course, I’m just thinking, ‘Hit this ball in the air.'”
A solid drive on a small par-five led to Kane making a surprise birdie – beating Woods on the hole, with the then-Tottenham star joking, ‘I’m thinking he thinks I’m a proper golfer now.’
Kane then quipped: “He only made par, so I should have just shook his hand there and said, ‘It was great to meet you and walked off.'”
Over the next three holes, Kane made bogey, par, bogey, however, it was enough for Woods to invite him for a full round the following day – leaving his partner Kate out in the cold.
The Three Lions’ all-time top scorer continued: “We end up in the clubhouse and we’re just chatting over a bit of lunch and we ended up meeting that night, we got on really well.
“The golf was great, but just chatting with him in the evening and getting to know him on a personal [level], speaking about family and things, spent a few hours [with him], and then he says, ‘I’m playing 18 tomorrow, do you want to play?’
“So I ended up playing 18 with him the next morning, and I was only in the Bahamas for four days. I just had to say [to my wife], ‘Sorry Kate, Tiger trumps anything here.'”
After conceding he didn’t play as well as hoped, Kane disclosed Woods shot six-under having come off successful back surgery.
Woods later won the Tour Championship the following year, before winning his fifth Green Jacket and final Masters triumph in 2019.
He said of Woods’ impressive round: “I kinda knew before anyone else did that he was playing really well.
“He said his last back surgery was really good when he fused his back, obviously in 2018 was when he won the Tour Championship and in 2019 he won The Masters.
“So I had a little inkling that he was coming back before anyone else, so it’s a pretty cool story.”