What's Ahead For Tiger?

His knee injury won't likely threaten his career, but how well Tiger Woods will play after his surgery and rehab isn't clear

The extent of what Woods faced at Torrey Pines was known by only a small circle.

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By Tim Rosaforte

Photo By Dom Furore

June 27, 2008

After walking halfway across his kitchen floor, Tiger Woods stopped in his tracks, overcome by the sharp pain in his left knee. Bent over at the waist for 30 seconds before he could continue, Woods was two weeks from returning to the PGA Tour at the U.S. Open and anticipating a visit from his doctors. It was then that swing instructor Hank Haney thought, "I don't see how this thing is going to happen."

Woods' medical team arrived at Isleworth that day to assess not only the condition of his knee, but also a double stress fracture that occurred while training earlier that week at his Florida home (and which was still a secret to all but Woods' closest advisors). The Memorial was being played at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, and Woods wanted to be there as a tuneup for the Open at Torrey Pines, but doctors suggested he spend the next three weeks on crutches. Woods had other plans.

"I'm playing," Woods announced. "I'm winning the U.S. Open."

Woods then lived up to his prophecy, going 91 holes after not walking 18 since the Masters, beating Rocco Mediate in an 18-hole playoff that went to sudden death before it was decided -- all the while grimacing, wincing and occasionally doubling over in pain from his knee. It wasn't until two days later, in a statement posted on his website, tigerwoods.com, that Woods revealed the full extent of the details behind his miraculous performance.

Woods won despite a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture of his left tibia. According to the statement, the fracture was probably caused by the intense rehabilitation program he subjected himself to in trying to recuperate from April knee surgery in time for the national championship at Torrey Pines. The ACL tear was an even older injury. In the statement, Woods said he tore the ligament while running at his home in Orlando shortly after the 2007 British Open.

In the immediate aftermath of his win at Torrey Pines, Woods admitted he played against the wishes of his medical staff ("I'm bad at following doctor's orders," he said). Last week, Woods showed he is taking a more pragmatic approach. Treatment for his injured knee and leg are now his top priority, and playing golf isn't -- Woods will sit out the rest of the 2008 season, which means he will miss the British Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup and the FedEx Cup playoffs. Said Woods, "Now it is clear the right thing to do is listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery, and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee."

Surgery to reconstruct Woods' ACL will be the fourth to his left knee, which the golfer has said he originally injured while skateboarding as a child. (He had a benign tumor removed in 1994 while a student at Stanford. In December 2002 he had benign cysts removed and fluid drained from around the ACL. And on April 15 earlier this year, two days after he finished second to Trevor Immelman at the Masters, he had a one-hour operation to clean out cartilage damage in the knee. That operation was performed by Salt Lake City orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Rosenberg, who also presided over the 2002 surgery.) The ACL reconstruction surgery has yet to be scheduled, perhaps because swelling from the injury must subside and the stress fractures in the tibia must be given time to heal. An ACL reconstruction also requires a graft and bone plugs into the tibia. Once the surgery is performed, Woods faces a much longer rehabilitation program than the one he went through after his April cartilage surgery. Medical experts say the rehabilitation process for a reconstructed ACL can take up to a year.

The biggest question after Woods revealed the extent of his injuries was whether he risked long-term damage by playing at Torrey Pines. Neither Woods, his doctors, nor his spokesmen would comment. But Dr. Jim Bradley, orthopedic surgeon for the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers and NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, told Golf World that although he wasn't treating Woods, he didn't believe the golfer could have damaged his ACL tear any further if it was already torn. The stress fractures might have been another matter. (In one painful incident, European Tour golfer Richard Boxall tried playing with a stress fracture in his leg at the 1991 British Open. While hitting a tee shot in the third round, the broken bone shattered and he had to be removed from the course by medical personnel. Boxall faced a long recovery and never regained his playing form. He now works as a broadcaster for Sky Sports.)