IMHO I don't see how TW can win at Torrey Pines. Not only has he not played tournament golf in a long while, but he hasn't really been able to hit golf balls, and this is a US Open setup.

Sure, you can never count TW out, but he is human and this is his third knee surgery. I can't imagine that, along with everything else, he will have his "A" game.

Hope he gets better soon...

Come on man this is Tiger Woods. He will have tons of confidence on the Torey Pines setup because of his success through the years, he has been practicing and there is still time. Tiger doesn't need to play to be ready he has only played roughly 5 tournaments this year(nfs). There is no doubt in my mind he will be ready to go. Sorry Phil

I am completely confident that Tiger will be not only prepared to play, but will play very well. IMO, moments like these are what clearly separates Tiger from every other golfer on the planet. This will be another example of Tigers mental strength and will to win. I think the thing that the average person forgets is that Tiger scheduled this surgery. He is very methodical, and would not have scheduled this if there was any doubt in his mind that he would not be ready for this Open. I have a good feeling that he could easily put on an encore of his US Open at Pebble Beach, and run away with it.

not exactly the same circumstances, but wasn't immelman counted out for the masters given his time off and health complications...i know, different story, but "these guys are good"

Yup, he will be ready. Torrey Pines was his stomping grounds when he was a kid. I believe he won his first tournament there when he was 16. A definite home course advantage IMHO.

Isn't Torrey Pines Phil's boyhood stomping ground too? Looks like this has all the makings of a humdinger of an Open.

That said, neither will win.

There's nothing in golf that I don't think Tiger Woods can do let alone win an Open on a course he's dominated in the past.

He has traditionally suffered in his first tournament after a knee surgery.

Oh wait, he won his first tournament the last time he had the same surgery on the same knee...

If any other players were just tearing it up right now I'd put him outside the top 5, but they're not, and he'll probably be in the mix on Sunday like usual...

My Tiger Woods Odds for the US Open

Make the cut 5/1

Top 25 50/1

Top 10 100/1

Win 500/1

If thats what you think then get on the betting exchanges, I'm sure there'll be loads of people wanting some of that!

I want $1000 on Top 25 and $1000 on Top 10.

Please PM me immediately.

A good thing about this, is that he's had extensive time to work nothing but his short game.. so I think his putting woes from the Masters will pretty much disappear....

Don't know what the extent of his scope was but I'm thinking if he had to withdraw this week then I think he'll miss his second cut in a major.

he could probably play this week if he absolutely had to, but why risk it??

he has 2 more weeks to get better (and let's not forget that it's only been 6 weeks). i'll be very surprised if he misses the cut at Torrey Pines (of all places). Winged Foot...not so surprising.

If TW reads this thread and sees that there is talk of him missing the cut, he will win in a blowout.

You think he's out there?

hmm....I got $2 on Tiger to win, $50 for a top 10 and $100 for a top 25.

-mini

As with the last three US Opens, expect T. Woods to contend at the very least. This will not be another Winged Foot. Six Buick Invitationals is no coincidence - the man has a feel for this golf course, and it's a difficult course that under Open conditions will brutalize at least half the field...so the experience, the most complete knowledge of how to work the ball around the course and avoid trouble gives TW a big leg up on the field. Even if he doesn't have his A game, he should manage to keep himself in it at least. Tiger has won here in going back to his youth. Let's not forget he won here in '03 coming off of knee surgery. He's gonna feel right at home playing in San Diego and under the intense pressure of this championship, that's a huge advantage.

I just watched a thing on the 19th hole on why Tiger was not playing at the Memorial


Evidently his knee is not responding very well

It seems and injury may have hurt Ernie Els career

Could we have seen the last of great golf from Tiger?

Now do not slay me I am just asking everyone thought he would be back by now


Imagine could he be done?

:popcorn:




not sure if that smiley works here....but it would be perfect. this conversation i will sit back and watch the sparks.



tell us....is he spent?

I'll put $50 on the win. I'll put the rest of my bank account on the make the cut at 5/1.

wow three weeks before the Open he can not even play a round of golf because of the pain and you have him winning

I would say it was even money if he will even play

The question is will the injury hurt his future after this year?

Again I am offering no opinion just curious what yall think

I think with Ernie (past couple seasons), it has been more so whats going on between the ears than his injury.

I think with Tiger's knee, his schedule and the time off he has between events, it won't be that big of a factor unless it gets more serious. (i.e. Couples's back)

I think he will make a top 20 finish. But you can never put it past that guy.

Please. "19th Hole" is one step above infomercial. Barely. The Pelz wedge system ad is more entertaining and informative than that time-killer.

Ernie's surgery was much more serious (ALC reconstruction) - i'v just had same 5 weeks ago and it sucks! Tigers surgery was minor arthroscopy to heal a damaged miniscus (just taking a shaving off the cartlidge to smooth it out) so he will have been walking within 3-4days and cycling on a spin bike within 5days.
While alot of you may think that this leaves him more time to work on his short game he will have had to spend a minimum of 3hours per day simply stretching the knee and doing silly exercises lifting the knee to work the quads etc. For any athlete 5 days of not using any muscles makes the muscle deplete by 20% and this injury will have had a substancial negative effect on tigers quads. Also if he spends more than 3/4 hours per day on his feet the knee swells up huge meaning the next day or two is spend lying down with leg up and ice on. On top of all this his rotation on the knee will be limited so he wont yet be bombing huge drives. As someone whos going through acl rehab right now i'd say he's gonna find it incredibly tough but we all know what Tiger's like, he wont compete if hes not at least 90%.
My money's on phil and if tiger does withdraw phils odds will take a huge dive. Expect tiger to come back looking even more cut - he'll have spend alot of time working out his upper body!

Ernie's surgery was much more serious (ALC reconstruction) - i'v just had same 5 weeks ago and it sucks! Tigers surgery was minor arthroscopy to heal a damaged miniscus (just taking a shaving off the cartlidge to smooth it out) so he will have been walking within 3-4days and cycling on a spin bike within 5days.
While alot of you may think that this leaves him more time to work on his short game he will have had to spend a minimum of 3hours per day simply stretching the knee and doing silly exercises lifting the knee to work the quads etc. For any athlete 5 days of not using any muscles makes the muscle deplete by 20% and this injury will have had a substancial negative effect on tigers quads. Also if he spends more than 3/4 hours per day on his feet the knee swells up huge meaning the next day or two is spend lying down with leg up and ice on. On top of all this his rotation on the knee will be limited so he wont yet be bombing huge drives. As someone whos going through acl rehab right now i'd say he's gonna find it incredibly tough but we all know what Tiger's like, he wont compete if hes not at least 90%.
My money's on phil and if tiger does withdraw phils odds will take a huge dive. Expect tiger to come back looking even more cut - he'll have spend alot of time working out his upper body!

Tiger and Appleby basiclly had the same surgery and I don't see a problem with Tiger competing well in the US Open. If anything, his chance of winning are just slightly less than before. Remember, he won tournaments this year playing in pain with the injury, he scheduled surgery and rehab, and fairly certain he has a good medical staff overseeing the process. Not playing this week was probably a smart choice as Jack's tournament is slightly less important than the US Open I would think. Plus more time at home with the family. Actually, when you think about it, this time off is really no less than he usually takes.



Source: Daily telegraph


Stuart Appleby commented that recent knee surgery won't hurt his chances to win The Players Championship.
Appleby injured torn the meniscus in his right knee a couple of weeks before the Masters, then he played with the injury at the Shell Houston Open and the Masters. He flew home to Australia after the Masters and had surgery to repair the damaged meniscus. Appleby played for the first time after surgery in last week's Wachovia Championship, but he missed the cut due to an alignment problem. When asked about how he feels he replied, "I wouldn't say I'm back to 100 percent yet, but there's no problem hitting golf balls or walking."

slight threadjack...




perhaps his caddy should help him more.





i am eager to see how tiger recovers. but when was his last US Open win? albiet Torrey Pines is basically a home track for him....how did Ernie do on his home track this past week?

should be interesting.

when I had the nineteenth hole on they had Jack Nicklaus on there and I believe he said that Tiger withdrew after telling him he tried to play the day before and could not do it

Did anyone else here see this?

The key is if Tiger is hitting the fairway or not. Torrey will be rearing to go for anyone with a bad driving week. I bet the winner is in the top 5 in driving accuracy and top 20 GIR. If you don't hit the fairway, you WILL NOT hit the green!

If Sergio can put together another driving performance like he did at the Player's, he will have a chance. Phil will have to hit it dead straight. Maybe he should try a 44" driver for the week or an FT-i.

Tiger can smash a 3 wood all day long and and have mid irons in to most par 4's. He needs to get confidence in his driver ASAP after returning from surgery. If his driver/3 wood are working, he'll win no problem. He knows more about the greens at Torrey than anyone else. Phil knows a lot too. Should be intersting to see their stats for driving, GIR's, and putting at the end of the week.

Just my $.02

lets think this over. he may not have spent several hour on the range but you can bet your a** he was camped out on the putting green and working on chipping. if he improved only a little bit over where he was at before the masters, the field should be very afraid.

Woods had hoped to fine-tune his game this week at the Memorial, but he withdrew and has no plans to play in next week's Stanford St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.

Tiger says

"I wasn't ready," Woods said. "I started my practice basically just recently. So going to Memorial that rusty, it wouldn't have made any sense. I wasn't sharp enough. I didn't hit all my shots I needed to hit yet at home and make sure everything is organized. ... The whole idea is to be ready for the U.S. Open."

Source Yahoo Sports

Or ashamed that even with knee surgery, a two month competitive layoff and a debut at the most grueling tournament in all of golf, they still can't beat this guy. How embarrassing!

Hard to imagine he can pull off a win given the circumstances.

As I do with all the majors, I'll pull for any non-major winner in the hunt on Sunday see their dream come true.

in the US Open, I always root for some obscure local qualifier to have a 4 rounds of his life and pull off the unthinkable.

apparently the latest news on his injury today is that he is struggling to improve as he would have hoped and he's admitted he's very unlikely to be 100%.
I still think he wont even start

Latest news is he just played Torey today in 3 hours and 15 minutes.

perhaps....but did he play all the holes tee to green?

Tiger is already in SD and played Torrey today, 8 to 9 practice rounds on Torrey Pines hello world!!

Updated: June 4, 2008, 6:24 PM EST 19 comments add this RSS blog email print SAN DIEGO (AP) - Tiger Woods played his first round of golf Wednesday since knee surgery two days after the Masters, getting a thumbs-up from his swing coach after 17-plus holes at Torrey Pines riding in a cart.

Eight days before the start of the U.S. Open, Woods played in solitude on the South Course with swing coach Hank Haney, stopping only when he saw a small group of people with cameras waiting around the 18th green.

"It went well," Haney said in a telephone interview. "He hit the ball really well. It was definitely a positive day."

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which first reported on its Web site that Woods had played, said the round lasted 3 hours, 15 minutes amid tight security. No spectators or media were allowed on the course, which has been closed since May 21.

It was the first time Woods has played at Torrey Pines since he won the Buick Invitational in January by eight shots before thousands of fans. Haney said it was eerie to play a city-owned golf course with no one around.

"We were the only ones out there," Haney said. "The course is in phenomenal condition."

Woods, who opened his 2008 season by winning his first four tournaments, had surgery to clean out cartilage in his left knee on April 15, two days after his runner-up finish at the Masters ended talk about a Grand Slam.


Woods had said Monday in a conference call for the PGA Championship that while he had been able to practice, he had not played a full round of golf since the Masters.

"Everything held up good," Haney said. "Obviously, he didn't walk. But he hit the ball really good."

Haney said Woods didn't keep score, and he often tossed golf balls in the rough to see what kind of options he would have. There were a few, none of them terribly appealing.

"In the deep stuff, it's a sand wedge, maybe a 9-iron at the most," Haney said. "We were messing around on No. 10 and he tried to hit a 5-wood. Even when the grass is deep, if you open the face and hit a cut, you might scoot it 150 yards. It's quite a sight to see Tiger 165 yards from the pin with a 5-wood."

The U.S. Open now uses graduated depths of rough from the fairway, and Haney said Woods could reach the green from the lower cuts. But anything in the rough above the hole was virtually impossible to get close.

"The greens were so fast," he said. "In the 30 years of being on tour and teaching players, that was the fastest I've ever seen greens this far out. They were putting beautifully."

Woods will play the U.S. Open having not competing in two months. He also went nine weeks without playing in 2006 while dealing with the death of his father, returning to the U.S. Open at Winged Foot and missing the cut for the only time in a major.

I think his injury is much more extensive than he has been letting on. I don't see him winning the Open.

sounds like he might be on the road to recovery....not sure a US Open Track is the best test to find out how things are holding up.


he's a magician out of the rough...no doubt. but we all know that playing out of deep rough can be painful.... a significant injury that is recovering could be further damaged.


i hope he recovers fully. i wouldn't put my money on him this year.

Considering everything I will be surprised if he makes the cut and know I am not looking for bets.

I never bet against Tiger it could get expensive.

I just do not believe the equipment will be ready for this one.

commenting for the first time at this post, i really think tiger can pull it off haha, he hasnt played or practice since recovery much but he did play in a cart yesterday so hes showing an effort to get out there to play well, i really think that he will play well.. i know he will struggle on the tee which will not be good at this course but when you really look at it, he has done many things to surprise us in the past.. im embracing myself for a victory