by ERIC SODERSTROM, Golfweek.com

Updated: April 16, 2008, 6:24 AM EST 9 comments

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The man who talked about winning the Grand Slam instead got the Grand Slice and now figures that missing The Players Championship is —How should we put this? — easily within reason.

My apologies to the eventual winner of this week's Verizon Heritage, the PGA Tour event being held over in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Your victory is soon to be overshadowed by screwy cartilage siphoned from one of the world's most famous knees.

For the record, Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Tuesday at Healthsouth Surgery Center in Park City, Utah, two days after finishing three shots back of Trevor Immelman at the Masters.

Immelman spent Tuesday with Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa. Woods spent it with Dr. Thomas Rosenberg and anesthesia. Immelman climbed to the top of the Empire State Building. Woods couldn't climb out of his bed.

As for golf, Woods is expected to miss four to six weeks, which means he won't be able to defend his crown at the Wachovia Championship and will likely miss The Players Championship, but should return in time for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines the second week of June.

Remember, Woods has always built his schedule around the majors.

"I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery for after the Masters," Woods said on his Web site. "The upside is that I have been through this process before and know how to handle it. I look forward to working through the rehabilitation process and getting back to action as quickly as I can."

This is Woods' third surgery on his left knee, which he has said has given him trouble since he was a kid, thanks to such things as skateboard and dirt bike accidents.

In medical circles, this means he is only one away from the Career Knee Surgery Slam.

Woods had a benign tumor removed from his left knee in 1994. He had fluid drained from around the anterior cruciate ligament and a benign cyst removed in December 2002.

After that procedure, Woods won three of his first four tournaments, beginning with the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, which only means we shouldn't be having any knee-jerk reactions this time around.

Unless, of course, you happen to play on the PGA Tour.

Hey guys, remember that whole Streak thing?

Yeah, well, that was with a bum knee. And now it's fixed.

Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG, told the Associated Press Tuesday that Woods has been experiencing pain in his knee since the middle of last season.

Forgive us for thinking they were rebuilt with titanium.

Woods won the Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship in consecutive weeks last August, then wrapped up the final two stages of the FedEx Cup and the unofficial Target World Challenge before heading into hibernation. He opened 2008 with four victories in a row before coming up short at the WGC-CA Championship at Doral, where he lost because of tough luck on the greens.

Not his knee.

Ditto for Augusta National.

"He's been having a lot of trouble," Woods' swing coach, Hank Haney told the Associated Press. (One of the reasons Woods switched from Butch Harmon to Haney was to get his swing on a plane that would take pressure off his knee.)

"He doesn't talk about stuff like that. He doesn't want to use excuses, you know? I don't think it affected his play. It affected his practice a little bit.

"He hit 14 greens in regulation on Sunday. Hard to say it was the knee."

Let's not forget one of the cool parts about being Tiger Woods: When your knee starts bothering you and you need surgery, you hire the Tiger Woods of knee surgeons.

And we all know the success rate there.