Woods to miss the rest of the year with surgery

Tiger Woods' career has been defined as much by spectacular shots as mindboggling numbers.

In just a dozen years on the PGA Tour, he already has won 65 times to rank third on the all-time list behind Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus. Woods has won 14 majors, closing on the record 18 won by Nicklaus and joining the Golden Bear as the only players to win the career Grand Slam three times over. He is 44-3 on tour when he has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

The latest number is the most troubling - three surgeries on his left knee in five years.

Two days after a grueling U.S. Open that took him five days and 91 holes to win, Woods said Wednesday he will have reconstructive surgery on his left knee to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.

''While I am obviously disappointed to have to miss the remainder of the season, I have to do the right thing for my longterm health and look forward to returning to competitive golf when my doctors agree that my knee is sufficiently healthy,'' Woods said on his Web site. ''My doctors assure me with the proper rehabilitation and training, the knee will be strong and there will be no long-term effects.''

And it wasn't just the knee hurting him at Torrey Pines.

Woods also revealed that he had a double stress fracture in his left tibia, suffered two weeks before the U.S. Open as he tried to prepare for the Memorial.

What was he doing playing the U.S. Open?

''You don't get to be Tiger Woods by having everyone tell you what to do,'' swing coach Hank Haney said.

That apparently includes doctors.

Haney was with Woods in Florida when doctors discovered the stress fractures and recommended the proper course of action - three weeks on crutches, followed by three weeks of rest.

''Tiger looked at the doctor and said, 'I'm playing the U.S. Open and I'm going to win.' And then he started putting on his shoes,''' Haney said. ''He looked at me and said, 'Come on, Hank. We'll just putt today.' Every night, I kept thinking there was no chance he's going to play. He had to stop in his tracks for 30 seconds walking from the dining room table to the refrigerator.

''He was not going to miss the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. There just wasn't any discussion.''

Now, the discussion shifts to his left knee.

Woods first had a benign cyst removed in 1994 when he was in college. Five years ago, he had surgery to remove fluid from inside and around the ACL. He had surgery again April 15, two days after the Masters, to clean out cartilage in the left knee.