Tiger Woods seems ready to take a sabbatical
THOMAS BONK / ON GOLF
Troublesome left knee might keep U.S. Open champion off the course for a while.
LA JOLLA -- After five days and 91 holes of golf, just after he cuddled his toddler daughter, and moments after he raised the U.S. Open trophy for the third time, Tiger Woods said he didn't feel like playing golf anymore.
"I'm glad I'm done," he said. "I'm done."
Of course, there are vastly different levels of not playing anymore, such as this one: He has had quite enough of the 108th U.S. Open, thank you very much.
But since this is Woods, the star attraction in golf, the most famous athlete in the world and the guy who just won the U.S. Open despite an aching left knee, what he actually meant is wide open to interpretation.
So here's some. No one should be shocked if Woods takes a leave of absence, maybe even a long one.
The Buick Open in two weeks? Not likely.
The AT&T National in three weeks, a tournament of which he is the host? Probably not.
The British Open in five weeks? Don't count it.
Let's hope everybody got a good look at Woods wearing his red coral-colored shirt Monday at Torrey Pines, where he outlasted Rocco Mediate, because we're probably not going to be seeing much more of him and his red shirts for a while.
Less of Tiger. There's a chance that's going to be the case the rest of his career.
What we may have witnessed on the beefy course laid out on the bluffs high above the Pacific Ocean was the beginning of something different, the New Tiger Woods Tour.
The numbers are already there. Woods played 26 tournaments worldwide in 2005, 21 in 2006 and 17 last year. In 2006 and 2007 each, Woods played only 15 PGA Tour events, the fewest since he turned pro.
He's trending downward. He's not playing more tournaments, he's playing fewer, and that's likely to become the norm.
Woods is exempt into every major and if he simply defends his titles, plays the majors and the World Golf Championship events, plus the Players and the Tour championships, he's already in double figures.
Woods turns 33 in a little more than six months. From the time Jack Nicklaus turned 33, he never played more than 18 PGA Tour events in one year and routinely averaged about 15.
The U.S. Open was Woods' fifth PGA Tour event this year and his first in two months since he had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.
There has been speculation that Woods' left knee requires further surgery, that he might need a procedure such as microfracture surgery, along the lines of what Greg Oden, the No. 1 draft pick of the Portland Trail Blazers, needed. Oden sat out this NBA season.
