What now after Tiger's knee injury?

Could it turn out that he'll be ... even better?

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By Jaime Diaz

Illustration By Bryan Christie

September 2008

First Earl Woods knew, or at the very least believed. Then Tiger did as well. The world -- overwhelmed by the ridiculous accumulation of clutch performances that have produced 65 career victories and 14 professional majors has followed. Rocco Mediate spoke for the collective in his reaction to Woods draining the 72nd-hole 12-footer that tied him at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. With a perspective that can appreciate genius and a good cosmic joke at the same time, Mediate said, "I knew he'd make it."

But Woods underwent reconstructive surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee a week after his playoff victory over Mediate, and now, well, nobody knows. Certainly the odds are that he will recover and become the greatest golfer ever.

But there's a chance he won't, which means even Tiger Woods could be fate's fall guy.

Needing to absorb it all for himself (and ultimately find a way to use it to his advantage), Woods led a contemplative life at his Isleworth home in the days after the surgery.

The numbing routine of post-ACL surgery has always been portrayed as among the darkest days for a professional athlete. There is immobility, pain, the blur of medication and the shockingly fast atrophy of once-chiseled muscle. Woods told friends he was restless, bored and, frankly, down. He distracted himself with movies, video games, Sudoku and reading. Family dogs Taz and Yogi had to get used to their favorite playmate being stuck on the couch, his elevated leg in a straight cast.

After not being able to fulfill his role as host of the AT&T National at Congressional in person, Woods at least was able to give his thumbs a workout by texting suggestions to his staff during the tournament telecasts. He also watched his friend Roger Federer -- another megastar assigned the mantle of inevitability -- lose to Rafael Nadal in an epic Wimbledon final. Sleep was fitful. "It feels like 38-hour days," Woods says.

It has been a year in which he has pondered unknowns more than he has pounded balls. At Torrey Pines, at the end of a week in which his public utterances about his physical condition were evasive and vague, Woods finally chose candor when he admitted, "This week had a lot of doubt to it." In a televised interview during the final round of the AT&T National, Woods said, "As far as golf is concerned, I really don't know," adding, "That's so far away."

Woods' operatic victory along the La Jolla cliffs, majestic as it was, was also traumatic. After his latest surgery, when Woods reflected on the Open by saying, "I really don't know how I pulled that off" and "That's something I never want to go through again," it was as if the physical ordeal and how close it came to ending in a devastating loss produced an inner shudder. And the truth is, everyone else is still getting their bearings. Watching Woods limp, grimace and even double over in pain as he dealt with an unrelenting U.S. Open course brought home the enormity of what the golf and sports worlds would miss if Tiger Woods lost his gift.

Perhaps sensing that he had created way too much drama, in the aftermath of his greatest victory Woods finally gave a history of his left knee -- albeit the CliffsNotes version.

We learned that it has been chronically sore for "10, 12 years." That his ACL was close to shot by the time surgeons removed cysts from the joint in 2002. That when it finally ruptured for good during a run on a golf course after last year's British Open, "everyone was very surprised it had lasted as long as it did."

Woods tried to compensate for the lost stability by stepping up efforts to develop leg muscles strong enough to act as a "checking mechanism" for his "deficient" joint. He took extra time off at the end of last year in the effort, but it was a losing battle. The intense exercise required caused more wear and tear and weakness in the joint, which in turn caused torn cartilage. By March, Woods had to accept that "I couldn't function anymore with what I was doing." With the idea of not missing any majors, he decided to have surgery after the Masters to remove the damaged cartilage. If all went well, he would play in the three remaining majors and then deal with the ACL.

The damaged cartilage was successfully removed, but the normal post-operative reaction left Woods with a loss of strength in the already weakened area that he could ill afford. Trying to build his leg strength in time to play the Memorial as a tuneup for Torrey Pines, Woods applied too much pressure to the unhealthy area, causing two stress fractures in his left tibia.