Shane Warne, the legendary Australia leg-spinner, has recounted a hilarious story about the first time he met Tiger Woods, and how he saved the renowned golfer from an awkward question.

Warne, speaking in the “Keeping It Real” With Chuck, Ludey And The BigFella podcast, was talking about how impressive it was for Woods to come back from all his off-field struggles when he was asked if he’d ever met the man.

It turned out Warne had met him on stage at an event in Australia, and got to “know him pretty well” after saving him from a potentially awkward question from the emcee. “I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Tiger a fair bit, I’ve had a couple of dinners with him, just him and I,” said Warne. “Got to know him pretty well.

“Actually, I saved …. when he came out here to Australia, remember there was a lot of stuff that went on off the field and that affected his marriage and things like that. He came out here after that.

“Myself and Tiger are on stage. It was in front of Sergio Garcia [Spanish professional golfer], golfers and all that stuff. And there were a 1,000 people for this dinner, and Tiger and I are on stage, and they were interviewing both of us.

Shane Warne posing with a group of children wearing Lasith Malinga masks.

Because, why not? pic.twitter.com/zqjZCK5RPS

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 10, 2020

“The first question the emcee asked to us was, ‘You two have got a lot in common, haven’t you?’. And I looked at Tiger and Tiger sort of looked at me, and I went, ‘I’ve got this one’.

“And I said, ‘Yup, we have, we certainly have – we both love golf!’ That sort of broke the ice, everyone laughed. We did that night, and him and I went had dinner together after that, and talked about all sorts of things. It was pretty cool.”