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The Dallas Morning News Tim Cowlishaw Column

Posted on: Thursday, 19 June 2008, 03:00 CDT

We were still searching for new and better adjectives to describe Tiger Woods' U.S. Open triumph, having exhausted "heroic, incredible, magical" years ago, when we were hit with a new and unanticipated list Wednesday morning.

Devastating.

Costly.

Season-ending.

The PGA Tour couldn't have traveled from the penthouse of the Woods-Rocco Mediate 91-hole, ratings-through-the-roof stare-down to that other house any faster.

Woods at his best for five days. Then no more Tiger for the rest of 2008.

The season-ending knee surgery will be his third procedure on his left knee since December 2002. All signs indicate that Woods' age (32) and his athleticism and determination will permit him to rehab his way back to superhero status.

But one never knows.

I agree with Andrew Magee, whose career was derailed by injuries, who disputed Woods' words on The Golf Channel.

In a statement released by Woods, he said his doctors had "assured" him there would be "no long-term effects" from the surgery.

Magee said that when you're talking about doctors and surgery, "There are never any guarantees."

This is the first time in his remarkable career that Woods' unparalleled mental toughness has actually cost him on the golf course. His determination to play the U.S. Open at San Diego's Torrey Pines, where his late father, Earl, used to drive him to tournaments as a kid, earned him the victory he so desired and put a 14th major championship trophy on what must be a very large mantel in the Woods estate.

But it cost him the 2008 British Open at Royal Birkdale. It cost him the chance to defend his PGA Championship at Oakland Hills in Michigan.

Could it even cost him the 2009 Masters?

That's 10 months away, but Woods faces months of rehab before he can even begin to think about putting that terrific torque that his violent swing produces on his left knee.

If all goes according to plan he should be able to play a couple of events leading up to the Masters and won't have to test the knee quite as courageously as he did at Torrey Pines.

But that's way down the line.

Some are now making the argument that Woods' defiance of doctors was a mistake, that it wasn't worth missing all of the golf and the next two majors, and it wasn't worth undergoing all that rehabilitation to make one heroic stand at the Open.

I could not disagree more.

It is simply not in Woods' nature to take the easy way out, to admit defeat when victory is possible. Woods knew there was a chance he would re-injure the knee during the tournament, although I doubt he expected to be forced to limp down fairways hole after hole as he did on the weekend.

But he also knew he would have a chance to win the Open, even at something less than 100 percent, even after not facing the heat of competition for two months. In fact, he told his doctor he was going to win, on a day not long ago when he could do no more than putt.

Woods is doing what he has to do now only because he has seen there is no other choice. But the long work for him and the dark days for golf that lie ahead came about because Woods produced a 91-hole championship victory for the ages.

And now we know why late Monday afternoon he described it as his "best major ever."

Mediate said after Monday's playoff that he can't even discuss Woods when he talks about golf because "he's not normal."

He didn't realize how true those words really were.

Source: The Dallas Morning News

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