OK, say you're Tiger Woods and you're worth over 1/2 Billion dollars...

[Junkdrawer]

You've won every tournament worth winning and the only record out there you don't have is Nicklaus' 18 majors lifetime record.

Your sponsors, the PGA and the media are constantly hounding you to enter every 2-bit tournament.

You have a super-model wife and a new baby. Every tournament you enter is a week of living out of a suitcase (albeit a damn nice suitcase) and being surrounded by tens of thousands of screaming fans and camera clicking photographers.

How can you get the hell out without the label "Quitter" being hung on your head and ruining the worth of the "Tiger Woods" advertising name? :think:

Oh, his knee hurts. But how much? :shrug:

[GOPisEvil]

1. Huh?

What exactly are you suggesting?

[Junkdrawer]

2. That Tiger Woods is a very smart man...and, from all appearances, he has a good...

sense of what's worthwhile in life.

[GOPisEvil]

3. Ah, gotcha.

I see. I agree.

[erpowers]

4. Not That Bad

Life at tournaments is not as bad for Tiger Woods as you make it out to be. At worst he stays at five star hotels and probably gets the stay for free. If he does not want to stay at the hotels he can just stay on his sailboat. At one of the tournaments he played in he stayed the whole time on his 100+ foot sailboat. In addition, he can easily bring his wife and daughter with him for the weeks he is playing in tournaments.

I do not think Woods is faking his knee injury. I also do not think he is exaggerating the injury. Maybe he will retire after this tournament, but I do not think he will use the knee injury as an excuse. In addition, I think he plays majors because he really wants to be Jack Nicklaus' record. He is not their just because his sponsors want him to be their. I think he will take some time off and then come back to try to win five more majors. When he beats Nicklaus' record then maybe he will retire.

[maxsolomon]

5. I hope he is faking

he deserves a sabbatical. i'm glad he's taking it.

its not like he didn't work hard right up till the time he left.

[Auggie]

6. I can't believe these posts... the guy is really hurt!

Open rigors force season-ending surgery on Tiger (S.F. Chronicle, 6-13-08):

...Woods also revealed he sustained a "double stress fracture" in his left tibia, an injury discovered last month and apparently the cause of his pain during the U.S. Open. He grimaced after numerous shots, especially during Saturday's third round and Sunday's fourth. The knee audibly creaked at one point Saturday, based on what another player, Paul Casey, told the Times of London. Casey spoke with Gareth Lord, the caddie for Robert Karlsson, who played alongside Woods in the third round. "(Lord) said there were actually noises coming from Tiger's knee," Casey said. "Clearly, he was suffering. ... Hopefully, he hasn't done himself any further damage."

{snip}

Woods offered little insight on the state of his knee in San Diego. But his swing coach, Hank Haney, told reporters Wednesday that Woods defied his doctor's recommendation to spend three weeks on crutches and three more weeks resting the knee. According to Haney, Woods told the doctor, "I'm playing in the U.S. Open and I'm going to win."

"I was determined to do everything and anything in my power to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is a course that is close to where I grew up and holds many special memories for me," Woods said on his Web site. "Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I'm thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament."

{snip}

Dr. Jason Dragoo, a sports-medicine specialist and team doctor at Stanford, said it generally takes four to six months for an athlete to return from ACL surgery. That would give Woods a realistic chance of coming back for his own tournament, the unofficial Target World Challenge in mid-December. His next official event could be at Torrey Pines, which will host the Buick Invitational in early February.

Full story: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/19/SPKO11B9AK.DTL