Wounded Tiger Down but not out

Tiger Woods will go down in golfing history as the man who won a sudden death US Open playoff with a critically injured leg. This is his 14th major title. He now trails only Jack Nicklaus at 18 for the most major golf titles. With a torn ligament in his left knee and a double-stress factor, Woods played valiantly and vindicated his decision to play despite the doctor’s pronouncement to sit out of the tournament.

Acclamations have been coming in labeling him as the toughest man in the sport but Woods has decided to give rest to his injured leg and most probably is expected to go under the scalpel to repair the torn ligament. The injury has put brakes on the magnetic Woods’ career as he will be forced to sit out the British Open in July, which is a major tournament, and the PGA Championship a month later. Neither will he play in the Ryder Cup in September.

Missing out
Effectively, it means that Woods is out of the 2008 season as the recovery time after the knee surgery is typically six to eight months, according to experts. This will be the third surgery on Wood’s left knee in five years. The surgery is likely to be performed by Dr Thomas Rosenberg at the Healthsouth Surgical Center in Park City, Utah.

Writing on his website, Woods said, now it is clear that the right thing to do is listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee. Woods won the US Open hobbling his way across 91 holes over five days at Torrey Pines in San Diego on a knee getting worse with each swing. He finally clinched the championship with an epic 19-hole playoff round against Rocco Mediate.

Woods, 32, had arthroscopic surgery on April 15, two days after finishing second at the Masters – to clean out cartilage in his left knee. At the time, he opted not to have anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery and chose to keep playing through the pain in the hopes of finishing up the year. Woods originally ruptured his ACL after the British Open in July 2007 when he was running near his home in Orlando, Florida. Managing the injury, at times with painkillers, Woods won five tournaments including the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the PGA Championship, the BMW Championship, the Tour Championship and the Target World Challenge.

Major loss
Woods is not the only one wincing over missing out the season. His sponsors and TV channels have more reasons to wince – they’ll be losing out in many ways. A Woods in action is a surefire way to draw crowds and high TV ratings and this cannot be ignored by medias executives. According to studies, nearly 40 per cent of golf watchers switch off their televisions when Woods is not playing. There are many advertisers and corporate sponsors such as Buick and Nike, who will have to rethink their strategies in the absence of Woods.


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