Tiger done for the year

[Cormac]

Just reported on ESPN radio that he is having season-ending knee surgery. I'm not sure what its to fix exactly. I know his agent said during the U.S. Open that we would never know just how bad his knee is. I guess he was right. Thoughts? Does this make his performance even more impressive? I think it does, to go something like 90 holes and still win on a severely injured knee, I don't care who the competition is, thats impressive. Can you say mentally tough?

[Cormac]

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3450453


Looks like its the ACL. Ouch! Been there, done that, not enjoyable!!

[dkbaseball]

Wow. This will be the fourth time that knee has been operated on. I wonder how much cartilage he's got left in there, and now an ACL. I'm a little worried about his career after this development.

And yes, mental toughness doesn't get any more impressive than winning a tight U.S. Open while walking 20 miles in five days on an injured knee.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Well, at least he picked a hell of a way to end the year. Hope to see him back in top form next year, 4 championships to go!

[hurleyfor3]

I wonder whether playing the entire Open exacerbated the injury. He was certainly in pain on the back nine Saturday.

[Chicago 1995]

I wonder whether playing the entire Open exacerbated the injury. He was certainly in pain on the back nine Saturday.

He ruptured the ACL after the Open Championship in 2007.

That means at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, when he won nine of ten tourneys, he was doing it on a knee with an injured ACL.

[hurleyfor3]

He ruptured the ACL after the Open Championship in 2007.

That means at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, when he won nine of ten tourneys, he was doing it on a knee with an injured ACL.

Irrelevant. It's quite well established he can play hurt in general. But what about this specific tournament two months after surgery?

[Lavabe]

According to the story, he also discovered just before the US Open that he had stress fractures in his left tibia.

EEK!

[gw67]

Tiger puts a lot of stress on his body with his violent swings. Based on what happened at the Open, I concluded that the only thing that could keep him from breaking Jack's record was an injury shortening his career. It appears to me that this is the proper choice for him at this time. Below is pgatour.com link:

http://www.pgatour.com/2008/r/06/18/...ery/index.html

gw67

[greybeard]

An ACL deficit you can live and compete with quite well as long as the knee is not unstable. Tiger's wasn't, at least not significantly. The wincing probably came from the stress fractures, which will require a period of inactivity to heal.

My guess is that Tiger decided to take the healing time as an opportunity to repair the ACL. Better I suppose to have one than not, especially at his age because the knee could become destablized with a torn ACL given the torque he puts on it.

Frankly, while watching him play in pain and do what he did I was in awe. I thought that he was having what I call knee tracking problems--a feeling, after cartelege is removed and reshaped, like your knee is made to run on tracks and isn't, which is sometimes associated with sharp pain when you put demands on it.

However, now that I know that the pain was due to his decision to play with stress fractures, the whole thing just makes me sad. Tiger says that this was his second most gratifying win in a major; to me it just brings golf futher away from sport, into a dimension of athletic competition whose hallmark is injury, pain, stamina, and drugs.

In retrospect, was Tiger's admitted use of pain killers to continue his climb to glory any different than the intelligent prophilactic use of steroids? Probably, but not as much as most people seem to presuppose. After all, Andy just used em (performance enhancing drugs, HGH) twice and it was only because he wanted to be able to "go" and his body, unaided, could not make that happen. Be careful what you glorify.

[edensquad]

The man is an absolute warrior (or an alien, lol). Winning with 2 stress fractures of the left tibia and a torn ACL... are you kidding me?!!?

How must the rest of the PGA Tour feel... knowing that Tiger has literally been beating them on one leg???? Yikes.

[blazindw]

I don't know about you, but I think that it makes his performance that much more legendary...a double stress fracture, a torn ACL, coming off arthoscopic knee surgery, and still won the U.S. Open after playing 91 holes of golf and walking all that distance on his knee. Gutiest performance in sports history, in my opinion, better than Jordan, better than Reed, better than Gibson.

I'm sad that I will not be able to see him play the rest of the year (including at the Ryder Cup), but glad that he's finally getting it taken care of.

P.S. Apparently, Tiger told his doctors that, despite the stress fractures, he would STILL win the U.S. Open. Link.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

The man is an absolute warrior (or an alien, lol). Winning with 2 stress fractures of the left tibia and a torn ACL... are you kidding me?!!?

How must the rest of the PGA Tour feel... knowing that Tiger has literally been beating them on one leg???? Yikes.

I just said the same thing to someone else. Absolutely freakin' amazing!

[greybeard]

What's so amazing?

1. He has played this course regularly since he was a child of 10.

2. He has won on this course 7 times before, including earlier this year, which is an awful lot of times, suggesting that no one can compete with him there.

3. All the major competitors like Phil folded early.

4. His only competition was a British guy trying to make a comeback, and a 45 year old guy who everyone loves but who has not been playing anything like compelling golf and provided more of the same this weekend (non-compelling golf).

5. If anyone said that beating Rocco in an 18 hole tournament would take the number 1 player in the world a lot of luck (Roco's bad drive on 18 and then 7) no one would be calling that an exceptional performance.

6. Playing with pain is something all athletes do.

7. Tiger was on pain medication which apparently was sufficient to allow him to walk comfortably and swing comfortably except when something went wrong which happened on only a relatively few Tee shots. Then, there was extreme discomfort that seemed to be short lived; he seemed to be able swing perfectly well on his ensuing shot.

8. Tiger knows these greens like the back of his hand and grew up playing on this type of grass. Rocco is an East coast guy and playing on pohanna (spelling ugh) is relatively foreign to him.

So, what in the world makes this competition and win so special?

[JasonEvans]

Yeah, playing with pain is easy. Everyone does it all the time. You never hear about nagging injuries impacting athletic performance or someone going on the disabled list because of an injury. Everyone plays through all their injuries.

Sheesh!

Hey, Greybeard, I'd be interested in seeing if you can find one columnist or golf expert who agrees with you. As far as I can tell, all the experts -- the people paid to think about and analyze this stuff -- are saying that what Tiger did is one of the greatest feats in sports history and that he only enhanced his legend with it. Can you find anyone who agrees with you?

Oh, and the notion that he was playing the same course he has played so many times in the past is laughable. Look at the scores every other time the PGA Tour has come to Torrey Pines and the scores this time. Aside from the fact that it was in the same location, that was not at all the same course Tiger was used to playing.

--Jason "I think Tiger is a virtual lock to win SI Sportsman of the Year for this" Evans

[Shammrog]

What's so amazing?

1. He has played this course regularly since he was a child of 10.

2. He has won on this course 7 times before, including earlier this year, which is an awful lot of times, suggesting that no one can compete with him there.

3. All the major competitors like Phil folded early.

4. His only competition was a British guy trying to make a comeback, and a 45 year old guy who everyone loves but who has not been playing anything like compelling golf and provided more of the same this weekend (non-compelling golf).

5. If anyone said that beating Rocco in an 18 hole tournament would take the number 1 player in the world a lot of luck (Roco's bad drive on 18 and then 7) no one would be calling that an exceptional performance.

6. Playing with pain is something all athletes do.

7. Tiger was on pain medication which apparently was sufficient to allow him to walk comfortably and swing comfortably except when something went wrong which happened on only a relatively few Tee shots. Then, there was extreme discomfort that seemed to be short lived; he seemed to be able swing perfectly well on his ensuing shot.

8. Tiger knows these greens like the back of his hand and grew up playing on this type of grass. Rocco is an East coast guy and playing on pohanna (spelling ugh) is relatively foreign to him.

So, what in the world makes this competition and win so special?

Bearded one! Did you watch it?

He was clearly still in a lot of pain; visible wincing. And he was doing such things as rotating his left foot or even picking it up during his swing - a big no no!

Tiger hasn't played in two months. At the time of the Memorial, he couldn't walk or play at all. Then for the last two weeks his prep has been about 30 practice swings a day. He has had no ACL for a year; then he had surgery on his knee two months ago. The rehab caused a double stress fracture.

He comes back, plays with all of these factors, and beats (with clutch shots on 18 the last two rounds) ALL comers in 91 holes, including the playoff and sudden death. He didn't just beat Rocco. Rocco was just the last one left. And Rocco may not be a "star" as far as name recognition, but he does have about $14M in career earnings, so he is no marginal pro either.

Tiger is THE MAN. This is one of the greatest sports achievements I can recall.

[pfrduke]

What's so amazing?

1. He has played this course regularly since he was a child of 10.

2. He has won on this course 7 times before, including earlier this year, which is an awful lot of times, suggesting that no one can compete with him there.

3. All the major competitors like Phil folded early.

4. His only competition was a British guy trying to make a comeback, and a 45 year old guy who everyone loves but who has not been playing anything like compelling golf and provided more of the same this weekend (non-compelling golf).

5. If anyone said that beating Rocco in an 18 hole tournament would take the number 1 player in the world a lot of luck (Roco's bad drive on 18 and then 7) no one would be calling that an exceptional performance.

6. Playing with pain is something all athletes do.

7. Tiger was on pain medication which apparently was sufficient to allow him to walk comfortably and swing comfortably except when something went wrong which happened on only a relatively few Tee shots. Then, there was extreme discomfort that seemed to be short lived; he seemed to be able swing perfectly well on his ensuing shot.

8. Tiger knows these greens like the back of his hand and grew up playing on this type of grass. Rocco is an East coast guy and playing on pohanna (spelling ugh) is relatively foreign to him.

So, what in the world makes this competition and win so special?

Do you actually believe this? or are you really just being a devil's advocate?

I mean really, what the heck made Kirk Gibson's home run so impressive. The Dodgers wouldn't have needed last minute heroics if he could have just manned up and played all 9 innings. And Eckersley grooved one to him, too - the pitcher made a mistake, it wasn't really anything Gibson did. And besides, all Gibson had to do was make one lousy swing and then jog for 360 feet. And it was his home field! He knows the distance to the right-field bleachers like the back of his hand - let's see him do it in Oakland where he doesn't know the dimensions. I'm supposed to be impressed? <further curmudgeonly rumbling>

[2535Miles]

What's so amazing?
So, what in the world makes this competition and win so special?

"This is probably the greatest tournament I’ve ever had." -- Tiger Woods, considering his career at this point, making quite a statement after his victory in the 108th U.S. Open. - http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.a...0&select=26242

[edensquad]

On the Golf Channel just now, Bubba Watson (pretty fair Tour player) just said that, if Tiger had been 100% this win would have been incredible, going 91 holes... maybe one of the best U.S. Open wins ever But, given what we now know of Tiger's injuries, the win is "unbelievable."

Everyone from analyst to peer has been unanimous in their respect for what Tiger did.

[greybeard]

I said devil's advocate.

BTW, boyz, I played basketball pretty intensely for 20 plus years with no ACLs, no cartelege in one knee, and not much in the other, so please do not tell me about playing with pain.

I also swung a golf club, or tried to, for just as long, before and after two surgeries on the same knee. My left knee has stuff floating around in it; has since a couple of years since my last scope job on that knee. Tiger can expect a date with the scope every couple as well. It is the way it works.

And, I still have not heard why this is such a terrific win. It was great theater, and sells the game, but please, everybody fell a part. I mean the only possible competition on the board was the guy who won a few years ago, but he tossed it away again and again and again, and the Big Easy who took it a little too easy.

Me, I was torn by rooting for Tiger and the terrifically likeable Rocco, who wasn't scaring anybody ever but kept on keeping on.

The tournament, except for that Tiger was playing in pain, was mediocre. The people who sell the sport, who make their living yaking about it, will never say such a thing. Why would they? Why people exalt plaers who play with injury of the type that Tiger did is no mystery; it appeals to the hero myth that infuses our very souls.

I understand this myth perfectly and was drawn by it as much as anyone. I watched for two days with my 17 year old son, who was named the best golfer on his high school team just last week. Heck, I was so amped after Saturday, that I said yes when Steven asked if I wanted to play a round, which we did at my old course, University of Maryland on Sunday. And, while I truly do not know where it came from (perhaps inspiration from Tiger), I played pretty close to boggie golf, lose particles in my left knee and occasional wincing and all.

But, alas while the hero myth has the allure of a young beautiful woman, I am not a young man, and know too well what value to place on one's body. Sadly, the message the media sends by exalting this win as something special does not.

And, btw, I do not think that Tiger plays this tournament if it was not at TP, where he knew he had a lifetime opportunity to pick up a major easy. You disagree perhaps, but I find it more than a tad curious that no one asked him that question. Not one of the pundits even alluded to the possibility. How come? Be careful what you glorify men; do it for your kids, which I embarassingly almost forgot. Steven, if you read this, playing hurt is stupid, you only have one body, and if you abuse it, it will cost you. There, it's never too late to try to get it right.