Tiger Woods out Four Weeks

Tiger Woods underwent surgery Tuesday to repair damage to his left knee. The injury had been plaguing Tiger for several weeks according to Woods and his agent Mark Steinberg. Woods' decision to undergo the knee surgery, or need for the surgery, were a well hidden secret as even his swing coach Hank Haney did not know Woods planned to get the surgery Tuesday until this week according to a quote on ESPN.

Tiger is expected to miss four weeks with the injury. The Players Championship will fall within that stretch and Tiger will be forced to miss the "Fifth Major" but should be ready to return by the US Open. The time away won't be new to Woods who missed considerable time in 2006 following the death of his father. Woods also has recovered from a similar operation in the past and anticipates rehabilitation to go smoothly.

While many are surprised Tiger did not advertise his ailing knee until the day of the surgery, I for one am very glad it was not known going into this past week. Tiger played well from tee to green at Augusta, but can you imagine what the announcers would have been like had they known of the knee injury? I am a Tiger fan for the most part, but there would have been few things worse on Sunday than having to hear how Tiger's knee impacted every poor shot and missed putt (you know they would have tried to blame the putting on the knee too).

Now the PGA realizes its real problem - ratings in events where Tiger Woods is not in the field. Somehow Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els don't seem to carry the same allure to the casual fan.