Great! partner, maybe on day Travis sink get a birdy one day like his ole man LOL. The PGA tour running through my town this week up the road with Tiger, some residence slept overnight the first day of opening just to se Tiger roar like a cat LOL. Got an artical for ya. We are about to enter golfdom's jungle without Tiger for protection. John Wayne no longer is around to double as the mentally tough, swaggering guide to help us find our way.
Tiger Woods, especially at this moment, is irreplaceable. Not just in his own game, where his loss will be beyond imagination. But he transcends his sport, as Jordan did his, as Ruth, DiMaggio and Mantle did theirs.
Woods, golf's greatest player, its banker, its face, its hope and its savior, is down and out, at least for the year. It means he not only will miss the last two major tournaments, the British Open and the PGA Championship – majors are most precious to him – but also the Ryder Cup (although he's proved a better individual than team player), among other events.
Woods, who limped around Torrey Pines South for 91 holes to beat Rocco Mediate in U.S. Open overtime, revealed on his Web site yesterday that he will have reconstructive surgery on a left knee that already has gone through three operations. He has a torn ACL. He also has a double stress fracture of his left tibia, suffered a few weeks before the Open.
“While I am obviously disappointed to have to miss the remainder of the season, I have to do the right thing for my long-term health and look forward to returning to competitive golf when my doctors agree that my knee is sufficiently healthy,” Woods wrote. “My doctors assure me that with the proper rehabilitation and training, the knee will be strong and there will be no long-term effects.”
Maybe we should have really known last week, when many media members were labeling Woods (who grimaced badly whenever he had to hit the ball hard) a drama king. When asked what his doctors told him, he simply replied: “Don't play golf.”
He now will pay attention, saying: “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.”
What does this mean? It's not good, at any time, when the world's most recognizable athlete is down. There is uncertainty, as there was when Bo Jackson damaged his hip 18 years ago.
But, like Jackson, just how much shelf life does Woods have left? Bo, perhaps the most gifted athlete of the 20th century, had to give up pro football after hip replacement surgery, but he was, for a while, able to play baseball.
Granted, Tiger, while no Bo physically, keeps himself in magnificent condition, but this will be his fourth knee operation – and the most serious – and, as orthopedists know only too well, that much work on a joint can lead to arthritis, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Me, I don't want to see Tiger limping around a course any more than I enjoyed watching Willie Mays trying to play center field past his prime, or Sugar Ray Robinson losing to tin cans.
But there's no way of knowing. Tiger's knee isn't ours. Everyone is different. Some heal rapidly, some don't. We've heard his recovery time can be anywhere from six or seven months – which could have him back to the Buick Invitational at his beloved Torrey by early February – or a year and a half, which would mean he would miss all four majors in 2009.
Looking back, knowing the shin splints caused him the most agony, coupled with a torn knee ligament, Tiger's victory here may have been the most incredible performance in the history of golf.
We can't know how much better he might have played if completely healthy. Golf, so fickle, defies almost all logical explanation. Tiger's so strong mentally, maybe more so than anyone on the planet, he's always difficult to gauge. He's the rare combination of great and lucky.
Last week all he kept saying was that he wanted to play even-par golf, and 1-under got him into the playoff with his opposite, the effervescent Mediate. You know Mediate has to be a great guy. Tiger even likes him, and I don't know how many people he really likes or allows within his orbit.
So what now? Who will pick up this considerable slack? San Diego's Phil Mickelson, the world's No. 2 player – although far behind Woods – enjoys great popularity. Unlike Tiger, though, Phil is unpredictable, as he certainly was at Torrey.
It's hard to see anyone else really stepping up at this point. Most golfers seem content to ride Tiger's coattails to bigger paydays.
Think about it. If Woods hadn't been in that Monday playoff, do you really think 25,000 people would have showed to see Mediate vs. Lee Westwood? Do you think millions would have been watching on their office TVs and computer monitors?
Fat chance. Golf is about to find out a whole lot about itself. A blindfold may be necessary.
The ball just went out of bounds. Till next post buddy!! :)
|