Philadelphia, PA (Best E Casino) - Tiger Woods' revelation Wednesday that he not only has two stress fractures in his leg, but also a torn ACL, came as a major shock to the golf world. However, the fact that Woods was injured was hardly stunning.
Woods limped around the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines over the weekend en route to his 14th major title, and clearly did so with one good leg. Over five days, Woods played 91 holes and walked more than 38,000 yards - or nearly 22 miles - on a bum wheel.
The real shocker is that Woods injured his knee last year.
On Wednesday, Woods admitted that he first injured the knee while jogging after the British Open last July. So he has played close to 11 months on one leg.
All the while, Woods has been beating the rest of the PGA Tour players like a drum. After hurting the knee, Woods won four of his final five starts in 2007. He also opened this season with four consecutive wins, to cap a run of seven straight worldwide victories.
We've seen golfers play in pain before, but most of that was a sore back or sore hip. Not since Ben Hogan has a golfer overcome so much to earn such a large win.
Hogan, for those that who don't know, was driving home from the Arizona Open in February 1949 and was hit head-on by a bus. Hogan tried to protect his wife, who was in the passenger seat, at the last second and in doing so, saved her life and maybe his own.
The injuries were severe and nearly killed Hogan. A small list of the injuries he incurred in the pile-up included a broken clavicle, fractured ribs, a complex pelvic fracture and smashed bones in his left ankle. Oh, he also nearly died on the way to hospital.
Hogan was told he may never walk again, but 16 months later he won the U.S. Open at Merion.
For his part, Woods played with an ailing leg to overcome a field that included the top-25 players in the world, and then some. Surprisingly, it was the 158th-ranked player, Rocco Mediate, that pushed Woods to the limit and beyond.
The comparisons from other sports are there - Kirk Gibson in the World Series, a flu-ridden Michael Jordan or hobbled Willis Reed in the NBA Finals, or Curt Schilling's bloody sock game. Woods' performance might just blow them all away...combined.
You don't think so? Combine the time of the storied on-field heroics of the aforementioned four, and you might equal one of Tiger's five rounds. There is no comparing what Woods did. The only thing that might be close was the Rams' Jack Youngblood playing two-and-a-half games, including the Super Bowl, with a broken leg.
In the realm of golf, no one has come close to what Woods did last week at the U.S. Open. And if you watched every shot like I did, you should be thankful to have witnessed one of the gutsiest performances in sports history.
MICKELSON, WOODS AND THEIR DRIVERS
Is it possible that we've now seen everything there is to see when it comes to the top two players in the world and their drivers?
World No. 1 Tiger Woods won the British Open using his driver once over 72 holes. Phil Mickelson, the second-ranked player in the world, once showed up at Augusta National with just two drivers in his bag for The Masters.
Last weekend, Mickelson played the first two rounds of the U.S. Open with no driver in his bag. Why is that news? Well, Torrey Pines played some 350 yards longer than any other U.S. Open course ever had played in the past.
So we've seen one driver over 72 holes, two drivers for 72 holes and no drivers for 36 holes. What's next? Will Mickelson just play skulled sand wedge shots off the tee to make sure he hits the fairway?
ODDS AND ENDS
- Tiger Woods wasn't the only winner at the U.S. Open. Seven other players qualified for the 2009 Masters with their top-eight finish at Torrey Pines. The lucky ones were Mediate, Lee Westwood, Robert Karlsson, D.J. Trahan, Carl Pettersson, John Merrick and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
- All right, I was wrong about John Atkinson. The eight-handicapper carded a smooth 114 in the Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge, which stemmed from Woods' comments at last year's Open that a 10-handicapper wouldn't break 100 at Oakmont.
- If you have been yearning for more Michelle Wie coverage (and who hasn't?) she is in the field this week at the Wegmans LPGA and also qualified for next week's U.S. Women's Open.
