Tiger Woods' epic US Open triumph may have exacted a costly price as golf's undisputed superstar announced on Wednesday he needed season-ending knee surgery.
Woods, 32, is to have reconstructive surgery on his left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and also needs time off to allow two stress fractures in his left tibia to heal.
The news, released via the player’s Web site www.tigerwoods.com, comes two days after Woods defeated Rocco Mediate in a thrilling US Open playoff to earn his 14th major championship.
PHOTO: AP
The gritty victory took Woods one step closer to matching Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles, but the revelation that he will need a fourth operation on his left knee cast a shadow over his pursuit of that revered mark.
“I will be as dedicated to rehabilitating my knee as I am in all other aspects of my career,” Woods vowed.
“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 and look forward to returning to competitive golf when my doctors agree that my knee is sufficiently healthy,” he said. “My doctors assure me with the proper rehabilitation and training, the knee will be strong and there will be no long-term effects.”
Throughout the US Open, played on the Torrey Pines South course in San Diego, California, Woods could be seen limping and grimacing, sometimes even doubling over in pain after hitting a shot.
His distress was most apparent during Saturday’s remarkable third round, when Woods seized the tournament lead with a back nine that included a 65-foot putt for eagle on the par-five 13th hole, a chip-in birdie at 17 and another eagle at 18.
Woods admitted on Monday that in his determination he may have done more damage to his already injured knee.
Until last Thursday’s first round at Torrey Pines, he hadn’t walked 18 holes since the Masters.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier