A Wounded Tiger Stalks the Open

The PGA Tour is facing a Tiger-less month ahead, as its number-one player recovers from the surgery that he had done on his knee last week. Conventional wisdom had Tiger returning to the circuit in the last week of May to play at the Memorial and get his game back on track for the U.S. Open, which begins the week of June 9th at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif.

But rumors are circulating today that Tiger may not play again until the Open rolls around. An article in the LA Times yesterday suggests a plausible rationale for such a decision, citing the distinct possibility that Tiger is feeling like he simply doesn’t need much of a tune-up for this year’s Open.

After all, he practically owns Torrey Pines. Back in January, he won the tour’s regular stop at the course, the Buick Invitational, for the fourth year in a row, and he did it with a typically Tiger-like brand of dominance, 19-under-par and eight strokes clear of the field, a performance that sent an ominous message to anyone who hoped to challenge him come Father’s Day and the Open’s final round.

All in all, Woods has six victories at Torrey Pines, and he must have been very happy indeed with the recent announcements from Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competitions, that the changes made to the course for the Open this year are on the whole minor. It will be the longest golf course in U.S. Open history, 7.643 yards in all, but then length never has been an issue for Tiger. With surgery to recover from and an overall mindset of Majors First, it’s easy to see how he might elect to give the Tour a pass until he gets his next shot at scorching Torrey Pines.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.