Tiger will be back ... but how good will he be?

by Jeff Rude, Golfweek.com

Updated: June 24, 2008, 2:04 PM EST

The most relevant question isn't how professional golf will get along during his absence. We already know that answer. The game will suffer a temporary void during which history is put on hold, ratings plummet, golf viewers get their summers back and other players gain the opportunity to win tournaments with a perceived asterisk and be born a star. It doesn't take A.C. Nielsen to surmise that not everyone will want to watch Appleby and Allenby and continue to figure out which one is which.

Rather, the more important question involves the long-range health of golf's latest messiah after the fourth operation on a left knee that takes the brunt of his 130-mph swing.

In other words, how many swings are left? Will we see him win major championships well into his 40s as so many once took for granted? Will he still zoom past Jack Nicklaus' record 18 Grand Slam titles?

Not only has Woods' knee taken a hit here. So have foregone conclusions. So cast your vision long, not short, and wish him well for his and the game's sake.

The PGA Tour is full of players whose ability dropped off after making swing compensations following injury. But this is a different duck, as we witnessed last week on the banks of the Pacific Ocean, where he hobbled his way to a 14th major victory that seems mythical since we now know he played with a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his shin bone.

The Open merely reinforced a long-held notion that should be carried forward: Never bet against Tiger Woods. We have now seen him win with A, B, C and bum-knee game. And we will see him win with his fourth-surgery game, though no one knows how often or for how long.

Smarter and more gifted than any other athlete, he'll figure it out, come hell or joint replacement or reduced schedule. He already has won 65 Tour titles, some on one leg, and 14 majors with three different swings. Clearly it would behoove him to alter his leg-snapping motion to protect the knee. He'll find a way to adjust and achieve. This is just another hurdle for someone who, like a battered Ben Hogan before him, relishes the challenge of laboratory work.

I don't know medical science. But I do know Tiger Woods.

Yes, this is a bummer for golf. Only time will tell how big of a bummer. In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy the accelerated and temporary Anthony Kim Era or whatever, if you so choose.

Woods is doing the right thing for his long-term health. He wisely said as much in a statement. The good news is that he says doctors have assured him that his knee will be strong and show no long-term effects after proper rehabilitation. A workout junkie, he'll dedicate himself to the recovery part, too.

Some pundits suggest he made a bad decision by playing the U.S. Open injured. I couldn't disagree more. Perhaps they weren't watching. He gave himself his most precious trophy and gave the game perhaps its most treasured moment. He was going to need surgery and rest anyway. Playing 91 holes at Torrey Pines shouldn't make much of a difference.

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Besides, what professional athlete with competitive will doesn't come back too soon?

Even Fred Couples prefers the arena to the couch.

Woods has shown that he will be golf's best player at ... pick a percentage: 30? 50? 70? So who's to doubt him when he comes back fresh and fixed, whether that be at the Buick Invitational back at Torrey early next year or at the Masters, pending necessary recovery time.

"He'll take time off and go win the Masters," Open runner-up Rocco Mediate said. "I'm sure he will. That's what he does."

At full health or not.

As Hank Haney, his coach, said after Woods limped and grimaced his way to a back-nine 30 the second day of the Open: "Who says you have to be 100 percent? Was Jack Nicklaus 100 percent (after he had) hip replacement? Was Ben Hogan 100 percent after that bus? Was Tiger 100 percent at Augusta (where he finished second) the week before having knee surgery?"

What's more, Jack Youngblood played in a Super Bowl with a broken leg. Willis Reed played in an NBA Finals with a severe thigh injury. Now we have a new, flashy entry for overachievement while hurdling a health issue: Tiger at Torrey.

The legend grows while the patient heals.

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