Tiger Woods

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) — Tiger Woods would not consider an assistant’s role on the US Ryder Cup team for September’s showdown with Europe and has no idea when in 2009 he will be ready to return to competitive golf.

World number one Woods, in a web posting update Tuesday, also revealed details about his injury and said stress fractures in his legs that hampered him through his US Open triumph last month are healing well following surgery.

“If I hadn’t played in the US Open, they would be almost fully healed, so the surgery was a blessing in disguise,” he wrote. “By the time I come back they should be fine.”

Woods clinched a spot on the US Ryder Cup team with his victory at Torrey Pines but will not be healthy enough to take advantage and said he would not serve as an aide to US captain Paul Azinger for two reasons.

“I’m not on the team,” Woods wrote. “The event should be about the competitors and the competition. The guys will have plenty on their minds and I wish them the best. I’ll be cheering loudly.”

Woods might be ready to make a comeback next January when the PGA returns to Torrey Pines for a regular tour stop. But even the 14-time major champion, now four off Jack Nicklaus’ all-time record of 18 majors, has no idea for certain.

“Looking ahead to 2009, I have no idea when I’ll return to competition. I haven’t set a date, because I just don’t know when I’ll be ready,” Woods wrote. “That’s the frustrating part. I don’t know what to look forward to.”

His days have been spent watching sports on television.

“I also read and play video games, anything to get me through the day,” Woods wrote. “I’m a pretty active person and don’t like sitting around. Unfortunately I don’t have much choice right now.

“Initially, it wasn’t much fun. But I’m on the good side now and starting to get more sleep.

“The thing I’ll miss most about sitting out the rest of the season is not being in the fight. I was really looking forward to playing in the British Open at Royal Birkdale, where I finished third in 1998, and trying to defend my title in the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills.”

Woods called the US Open triumph his greatest ever as it come only after an 18-hole playoff and sudden death extra hole victory over Rocco Mediate, a 91-hole ordeal that he limped his way through.

“I’d have to say it was the biggest win of my pro career. Some people have mentioned the 1997 Masters, but for me as a player, the US Open was more difficult. I still don’t know how I did it.”

Woods was coming off left knee surgery just days after he finished second to South Africa’s Trevor Immelman at the Masters.

“Why did I do it? Am I that stubborn? The three reasons I played were: It was Torrey Pines, a place where I grew up playing and have had a lot of success, I was comfortable on the course and knew the greens and I knew it was going to be my last event of the year,” Woods wrote.

“Would I do it again? Probably. I knew I could win. It was just a matter of dealing with the pain and executing. The day after the tournament, my knee was done. I couldn’t stop limping. It’s amazing what adrenaline does to a system.”

Woods knew that his anterior cruciate ligament was in bad shape after the knee surgery but could not know that worse was on the way.

“I knew my ACL was basically shot. I was just trying to get through the season, then planned to have reconstructive surgery,” he wrote. “Unfortunately I developed two stress fractures during my rehabilitation and that set me back.

“I wanted to play in the Memorial Tournament but couldn’t walk. I figured if I took it easy for a couple weeks, I would be able to play in the US Open.

“Once the pain subsided, I could hit four or five balls at a time and then I would have to sit down in the cart because the stress fractures hurt so much. Then I would hit a few more balls and go home for the day.

“That’s how I got ready for the US Open.

“When I walked, my knee throbbed, but it wasn’t a shooting pain. Most of the pain came when I swung the club. Certain shots I couldn’t lean forward - that was the frustrating part. I didn’t really have a go-to shot because I wasn’t sure where the pain was coming from.

“Honestly, I never thought about quitting. I was going to make it. I might have been slow, but I wasn’t going to stop playing.”

~Story from Google News

Kenny Perry never imagined facing so much criticism over where to play golf.

There was a time when he was desperate to play anywhere. He was 26, with two children in diapers and no money for a third attempt at qualifying for the PGA Tour. That’s when he made a deal with an angel, Ronnie Ferguson, an elder at the Church of Christ in Franklin, Ky., who offered him $5,000 for one last shot at Q-school with one string attached.

If he failed, Perry didn’t owe Ferguson a dime. But if he made it, Perry would give back 5 per cent of his tour earnings to David Lipscomb University, a small Christian school in Nashville, Tenn.

That was 22 years and US$25 million ago.

Over the years, Perry has collected 11 victories on the PGA Tour, including two in the last six weeks at the Memorial and the Buick Open. The kids who have gone to Lipscomb with help from his scholarship program have become teachers, nurses, youth ministers.

This is worth remembering as Perry gets buried next week for skipping the British Open, sticking to his original plan to play in Milwaukee.

As determined as he was to play golf for a living, Perry was equally tenacious about playing in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla, just up the road from his old Kentucky home.

“This is a lifetime opportunity for him,” U.S. captain Paul Azinger said Monday.

Azinger is partly responsible for Perry essentially wrapping up a spot on this team so soon. He revamped the qualifying process to put more emphasis on the current year, which was a good thing for Perry. He was 79th on the money list last year, but already this year has two victories and a playoff loss and is No. 4 in the U.S. standings.

Consider what happened the only other time Perry played in the Ryder Cup. He qualified for the 2004 team based almost entirely on his 2003 performance, when he won three times. Not surprisingly, he played only two matches at Oakland Hills and lost them both.

Clearly, those memories linger.

“I told (wife) Sandy, this might be the worst thing I’ve ever wished for,” Perry said. “I may play poorly and get drilled.”

No need to wait for the Ryder Cup to get hammered.

There are plenty of guys who make a Ryder Cup team without winning a major. Perry might be the first to clinch a spot without having played in a major that year.

He wasn’t eligible for the Masters. Then, he chose not to go through 36-hole qualifying for the U.S. Open the day after he won the Memorial because he was worn out. Besides, Perry said he has never played well at Torrey Pines and wanted to conserve his strength for PGA Tour events that would give him a better chance at winning, and making the Ryder Cup team.

With only five weeks remaining in the qualifying process, Perry is virtually a lock to make the team. Along the way, his outstanding play earned him a spot at Royal Birkdale through a special money list.

This might be Perry’s best chance to win a major, considering his form and Tiger Woods’ knee.

But he turned it down.

Woody Austin didn’t go to Carnoustie last year because he had played two months straight and didn’t want to show up at the toughest links course in the world and shoot a million. It would be one thing if Perry wanted to rest his 47-year-old bones. But he’s playing this week at the John Deere Classic, and next week at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

“I committed to all these tournaments when I was ranked 100th in the world,” said Perry, who is now at No. 20. “And now, all of a sudden, I’ve won twice. I’m not going to back out on them.”

He risks the respect of his peers, however.

Why would anyone skip a chance to play one of four major tournaments that define a career? How does it look when one of the top Americans ducks a major to play against the B-Flight in Milwaukee?

The most peculiar part of Perry’s decision is that he finished 16th or better in three of his last four Opens. His best finish was at Royal St. George’s, where he wound up four shots behind Ben Curtis in a tie for eighth. That was in 2003, the best season of Perry’s career.

Anyone playing this well - and few are better at the moment - can win anywhere.

Such a decision contrasts with Sean O’Hair going through hoops to get a passport to St. Andrews in 2005 after winning the John Deere Classic, or Bob Estes flying across the ocean as an alternate and leaving without ever hitting a shot.

Then again, Perry isn’t the first player to skip a major at the top of his game.

Arnold Palmer was the Masters champion in 1964 when he stayed home from the British Open because he was tired. Annika Sorenstam was 28 when she skipped the du Maurier Classic, citing fatigue after taking appearance money from two overseas tournaments.

Perry at least should get credit for being the first American to care more about the Ryder Cup than a major.

Besides, his captain is squarely behind him.

“I don’t care and he doesn’t care,” Azinger said about the British Open flap. “So why should it bother anybody else? The guy has the guts of a burglar. He’s going to be 48. He can do whatever he wants. I’m happy for him.”

Azinger’s only instruction for Perry after he won the Buick Open was to set new goals so he stays sharp before Valhalla.

One might be to win the PGA Championship and gain a small measure of redemption at Oakland Hills.

Another would be leading his team to a rare victory at the Ryder Cup in Kentucky.

Care to guess which tops the list?

~Story from Google News

Montgomerie has played in eight Ryder Cups, has never lost a singles match and his overall points tally of 23.5 is only 1.5 points behind the all-time record, which is held by current European team captain Nick Faldo.

Recently, Montgomerie claimed that if he was the captain he would select Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald ahead of himself, given their recent tournament form.

But he says he has not given up hope of recapturing his best game before the competition begins in Valhalla on September 19th.

“Golf is a momentum-type game - you have to make hay while the sun shines,” he explained.

“When you are playing well and striking the ball well you have to maintain that.

“Let’s hope that over the next few weeks I can get in the Ryder Cup team [automatically]. If not, I hope I can prove to the captain that I am still capable of performing on the world stage.”

Montgomerie also said is under no illusions about Faldo’s wildcard selection criteria, which he believes will be made solely on the respective form of all the players in contention.

“I have a lot of respect for Nick and I’m sure he has for me and there’ll be no personalities involved in who he picks – he’ll pick the strongest players that he feels will do the job in Valhalla,” he explained.

“If I can prove myself to him then I might be one of those, but we’ll just have to wait and see.”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tiger Woods will have reconstructive surgery on his left knee that will sideline him for the rest of the 2008 season, the world number one said on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old American nursed a painful knee all week before clinching his 14th major title at the U.S. Open on Monday, winning a 19-hole playoff against compatriot Rocco Mediate.

It was his first tournament in two months since having surgery on the knee two days after the U.S. Masters in mid-April.

Woods outlined that he would have reconstructive surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament. He also said he would require time off to rehabilitate a double stress fracture of his left tibia that was found last month.

The stress fractures were attributed to Woods’s intense rehabilitation and preparation for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego.

“I know much was made of my knee throughout the last week, and it was important to me that I disclose my condition publicly at an appropriate time,” Woods said in a statement on his official website ( www.tigerwoods.com ).

“I wanted to be very respectful of the USGA (United States Golf Association) and their incredibly hard work, and make sure the focus was on the U.S. Open.

“Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery, and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee.”

Woods, who has already had three previous surgeries on his left knee, refused to disclose much detail of the pain he clearly suffered at Torrey Pines last week.

MOST MEANINGFUL

However, he rated his major triumph as the most meaningful of his career given the obstacles he faced, an opinion echoed by his swing coach Hank Haney.

“I certainly think it’s the greatest win he’s ever had,” Haney told reporters on Monday. “He had only played 27 practice holes since the Masters and he never hit more than 50 balls a day on the range.”

Moments after securing his 14th major title and his 65th career victory on the PGA Tour, Woods admitted he had defied doctor’s orders to compete at Torrey Pines.

“As far as future ramifications, I’m not really good at listening to doctor’s orders too well,” he added. “Hey, I won this week, so it is what it is.”

On Wednesday, he conceded he needed to follow medical advice for the sake of his long-term career.

“While I am obviously disappointed to have to miss the remainder of the season, I have to do the right thing for my long-term health,” he said.

“I look forward to returning to competitive golf when my doctors agree that my knee is sufficiently healthy. My doctors assure me with the proper rehabilitation and training, the knee will be strong and there will be no long-term effects.”

The driving force behind Woods’s career has been his desire to overhaul the record 18 major titles piled up by his childhood idol Jack Nicklaus. Woods now trails by four with only Nicklaus ahead of him.

“Only being four back, it’s hard to believe I’m in this situation,” Woods said. “It’s hard to believe I’ve had this nice a run in my career, and hopefully it will continue. I’m going to keep practicing, keep trying to grind and get better.”

By Chuck Garbedian
Special to OnMilwaukee.com

I’m a selective purist.

I’d also like to think that there are times when common sense comes into play. It wasn’t that long ago that we were not a 24/7 society, where every little thing could be dissected, analyzed, chewed up and spit out only to be regurgitated by someone somewhere down the line and accepted as possible fact.

So, Kenny Perry doesn’t want to play in a 36-hole qualifier for the US Open because he says his 47-year-old body can’t take the rigors of that kind of exam anymore. And who are we to say that we know how Kenny Perry’s body will respond better than he does?

Torrey Pines, the site of the 2008 United States Open, is also not a course that suits Kenny Perry’s eye. He’s a grown touring professional who doesn’t want to endure a 36-hole qualifier to play a course he doesn’t like. Hey, I realize that it’s the US Open, but get over it!

We ask honesty of all these days — our politicians, our athletes, our heroes — and when they have the audacity to actually say something relevant, something honest, something from the heart, we then proceed to barbecue them because we don’t like what they said, even though it’s the truth that we demanded.

Remember Vijay Singh’s comments about Annika Sorenstam participating at Colonial? Remember when a young and somewhat naïve Tiger Woods spoke all too candidly to a reporter shortly after welcoming himself professionally to the world?

I trust that Kenny Perry knows what he’s doing. The Ryder Cup at Valhalla is more important to him than the US Open. He’s played seven weeks in a row, playing courses that suit his style of play. He’s played well, notching a win at the Memorial (ironically Jack Nicklaus’s event) and several other top finishes to move him to fifth place in the Ryder Cup standings for the United States squad.

If the USGA wanted to make a real statement about the quality of the US Open field, it would award the winner of any full-field invitational or event a spot in the US Open, just like the Masters has begun to do again. And with it, a buzz would be created because now a red-hot Kenny Perry would be in the Open instead of looking in from the outside and having to make a judgment call on his own.

If you want to regurgitate one, how about this; what’s more important, Kenny Perry winning the individual title of US Open Champion or Kenny Perry helping Team USA win back the Ryder Cup? Individual or team, you make the call.

As long as we’re speaking of the US Open, let’s take a look at what we’re in for this weekend.

The 2008 US Open is the 108th played and will be contested on Torrey Pines South Course, playing to a par of 35-36-71 at 7,643 yards, 379 yards longer than any previous US Open layout.

Both of the nines on the South Course end with a par-5. The ninth tops out at 612 yards, while No. 18 checks in at a mere 573 yards. Torrey Pines will also feature two of the longest par-4s in Open history. The 12th hole will play to a length of 504 yards while the sixth hole will measure out as the longest four par in Open history at a mind bending 515 yards. The risk/reward factor will be further tested when the USGA moves the 435 yard par-4 14th hole up to a drivable 277 yards for at least one of the weekend rounds, daring the field to take a shot at driving the green.

In terms of overall conditions, Torrey Pines will play firmer and faster from tee to green in this configuration than it does when the Buick Open is contested there early in the PGA season.

The fairways for the US Open will range from 24 to 33 yards wide with a six-foot wide first cut of rough that will run the length of the hole at a depth of one inch. The next cut of primary rough will be 15-feet wide and grown to two inches, while the second cut of the deepest rough will be three inches deep. Some of the gallery ropes will be moved further from the fairway so that an errant drive will have to contend with a recovery from the most penal rough.

Greens on the South Course will run out at 13 to 13.5 on the Stimpmeter for all four days of the Championship. The primary rough 12 feet around the putting surfaces will feature three inch deep rough while further out the rough will be grown to four inches.

There will be 30 hours of television coverage for the Open with 16 of those coming on NBC, with ESPN handling 14 hours of coverage over the first two days of play.

In case you didn’t know, the US Open is open to professional and amateur players with a USGA index of not more than 1.4. The USGA accepted 8,390 entries for play at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines.

What do you get for winning the US Open besides a wheelbarrow full of cash and a lifestyle change? Well, the winner of the 2008 US Open will receive an Open exemption for the next 10 years, as well as a five year exemption into the Masters, British Open, PGA Championship and Players event as well as a five year PGA Tour exemption.

That’s one reason he won’t play the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club in San Diego June 12-15.

“Go big blue, Kentucky, Ryder Cup, Ryder Cup,” Perry, a Kentucky native, said at a press conference after winning The Memorial Tournament for the third time Sunday.

The victory moved him to fifth on the Ryder Cup points list. The top eight earn spots. Captain Paul Azinger picks the remaining four players.

Perry, a member of the 2004 Ryder Cup team, has designed his schedule to maximize his chances of making the team. He says Torrey Pines has never suited his game. He tied for 67th there at the Buick Invitational in January.

Citing age, Perry, 47, didn’t try to make the U.S. Open at a 36-hole qualifier Monday. He’s preparing instead to play courses that he likes, such as TPC Southwind in Memphis this week for the Stanford St. Jude Championship and the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell in two weeks.

This will be his 20th appearance at the Travelers Championship, where he has three top-10 finishes in the last six years.

“I’ve got great tournaments coming up. Hartford. Buick. I won the Buick Open up in Flint, Mich. [in 2001],” he said. “Just courses that when I go there, I’ve got a lot of confidence. And my time’s running out though. It’s getting close to September here, you need to make it happen and you need to make it happen fast.”

Perry is playing in his seventh straight tournament this week. In addition to his victory at The Memorial, he finished second in a playoff at the AT&T Classic May 18.

“Dad always told me, ‘Ride that train when it’s hot, keep chasing it. Don’t go home,’ ” Perry said. “And I’ve always taken his advice to heart.”

Perry is intent on being at Valhalla, where he had the greatest disappointment of his career, a playoff loss to Mark Brooks in the 1996 PGA Championship.

Perry is so confident he’ll be there in September that he expects many family and friends to make the two-hour drive from his home in Elizabethtown.

“It’s in front of my home folks,” he said. “It’s just going to be a tremendous feeling for me to be able to celebrate with them, represent my country.”

IT SEEMS Celtic Manor golf course director Jim McKenzie just cannot escape the spectre of Wales Open winner Scott Strange.

Whether it’s down the local, in his favourite restaurant or just a general chin-wag with the neighbours, the same question seems to get asked.

“What about 22-under winning the Wales Open on the Ryder Cup course?”

But McKenzie, who meets with Ryder Cup and Wales Open chiefs next week, promises his TwentyTen Course will have sufficient teeth in two years’ time to make Tiger Woods earn his American stripes in the Usk Valley.

“Neighbours, the guys when I go down the pub and kids in my local restaurant have been asking about 22-under,” said McKenzie, celebrating 15 years at the Celtic Manor after giving up a job tending the greens of Wentworth.

“I have to say, hold on a second, it doesn’t mean this isn’t a tough golf course. Scott Strange took everything on and it paid off because the course was so soft.

“And the course for the Ryder Cup will be completely different.

“It’s a sporting event run by different people.

“If you had told me the beginning of the week 22-under would have been the winning score I would have been shocked.

“But then 22-under wasn’t played over the full-length golf course.

“I think when the players turned up at the beginning of the week and saw the length of the course, they nearly had kittens.

“The tournament director has taken flak because at least on nine holes during the week he had the tees moved back and forward.

“We were trying out options for future Wales Opens and the Ryder Cup, but I didn’t think Robert Karlsson would have thought he could shoot 18-under around here and lose by four.

“I think someone can always shoot a stupid score on Tour.

“For me, I wasn’t looking at the winning score but where the rest of the field were packed up and that was around the 12-under mark.

“We will have a number of debriefs after the tournament where we will not only look at the course, but the surrounding infrastructure like the car parks and tented village.

“Next week I’m having a meeting with the course architect, and the tournament directors for the Wales Open and Ryder Cup.

“We’ll go over how the course performed, and seeing if we need to change fairway shapes or need to put in more bunkers.

“We’ll start straight away on any work we feel might be necessary as a result of the 2008 Wales Open to make sure it’s all in place for the 2009 Wales Open.

“Mike Stewart, the Wales Open tournament director, has spoken to a lot of different players for feedback since last week and they have all been positive.

“He said Thomas Bjorn came into his office and congratulated him on the way the course had been set up for the week.

“We’ve had conversations with Bradley Dredge and Phil Price, who was down here practising this week.

“You would drive yourself crazy if you talked to 156 different people, so I’m talking to the guys I know well in Phil and Bradley.

“For me, it didn’t matter if the guy shot 22-under or 12-under.

“It’s all about the quality of the entertainment and the TwentyTen course is one of options.

“It’s all about where we put the tees and that’s why we built the course the way we did.

“In four-ball during the Ryder Cup one guy can chance his arm while the other plays a bit safer.

“Crowds don’t go to tournaments to watch guys struggling to make par.

“They want to see shots hit stiff to the flag, bunker shots holed and long putts go in.

“During Ryder Cup you are playing against each other and not the golf course as such. We have to look at things right across the board, but it’s a learning process.

“I think given the weather during the Wales Open it went as well as it could have done.

“The rain was incredible on the day of the pro-am, but the amazing thing was by the following evening we were mowing fairways again.”