This Just In: Tiger Woods Is Good

Tiger Woods demonstrated that he is the best golfer in the world by winning the marathon U.S. Open Golf Tournament this past weekend. Tiger played five days, 18 holes each day and still had not won the U.S. Open. Roco Mediate challenged Tiger and often times it really was Tiger playing Tiger and golf history. Roco made the shots when he needed to and took advantage of Tiger's mistakes. Roco undoubtedly played the best golf of his life on Sunday and Monday and just refused to be beaten by the world's best. Tiger on Saturday with two Eagles and the chip in birdie in the last five holes set the stage for Sunday domination, but it never happened and then again on Monday playing the 18 hole playoff Tiger never took over. Tiger grinded through the back nine and just refused to give up as did Roco. Tiger wore Roco down and won the 19th playoff hole when Roco missed his putt.

Today we learned that Tiger was not just in pain due to recent knee surgery, but he evidently had been hurt more severly than anyone knew. Stress fractures in the tibia and a torn ACL are very painful, it's no wonder why he practically doubled over in pain after some of his shots. With the details of Tigers injuries being released we also learn that he is out for the rest of the season and will target his return in 2009. I have included a story from the Associate Press.

Tiger Woods will have knee surgery, miss rest of season
01:23 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Associated Press

Tiger Woods is done for the year, but not without one last major that capped off a painful 10 months.

Woods said Wednesday he will have season-ending knee surgery, revealing he has had a torn ligament in his left knee since last July.

And he suffered a double stress fracture of his left tibia while preparing to return to the PGA Tour last month, which forced him to miss the Memorial and was the source of his pain at Torrey Pines when he won the U.S. Open.

"Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee," Woods said in a statement on his Web site.

He had arthroscopic surgery April 15 to clean out cartilage in his left knee, bypassing ACL surgery with hopes it could get him through the 2008 season. But going 91 holes for his 14th career major made it impossible to play any longer.

Woods was last seen in public late Monday afternoon walking with a pronounced limp across Torrey Pines toward the parking lot, the U.S. Open trophy in his arms.

Upcoming surgery makes his 14th major title even more staggering -- despite the stress fractures, he managed to win a U.S. Open that required five days of flinching, grimacing and a long list of spectacular shots that have defined his career.

"Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I'm thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament," Woods said.

He played only seven times worldwide this year and won five of them. He will miss a major championship for the first time in his career and will not be available for the Ryder Cup in September.

It will be the third surgery in five years on his left knee, although Woods said doctors have assured him the outlook is positive. When asked Monday if he further damaged his knee by playing in the U.S. Open, Woods said, "Maybe."

Doctors have told him, however, that the stress fractures will heal with time.

He did not say when he would have surgery.

Woods is ultra private with his health and personal life, never more so than at the U.S. Open. He never mentioned the torn ACL or the stress fracture, and wouldn't say how he was treating it, only that it was more sore as the week went on.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was when the injury first happened.

Woods said he tore the ACL while jogging at home after the British Open last July. He chose not to have surgery and went on a run that included seven consecutive victories, including the Dubai Desert Classic in Europe and his Target World Challenge, an unofficial event.

He did not play overseas late last year for the first time since 2003, hopeful that rest could allow him to play more this year. But the pain intensified through the Masters, where he finished second, and Woods said the cartilage damage developed from the ACL injury.

What he didn't anticipate were the stress fractures, discovered as he tried to get ready to play in the Memorial.

"The stress fractures that were discovered just prior to the tournament unfortunately prevented me from participating and had a huge impact on the timing for my return," Woods said. "I was determined though, to do everything and anything in my power to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is a course that is close to where I grew up and holds many special memories for me."

The New 3G iPhone - It's Here!

The day I have been waiting for is here. July 11 will be the day that the new iPhone is available and I'm all over this one. My time with Sprint has been good, but the day has come to jump ship. There is no device that Sprint has or has coming that can compare to the new iPhone. It's a phone, iPod, Internet Browser, highspeed connectivity available worldwide, GPS, new Application Store, and last but not least Microsoft Exchange integration for the Enterprise users. It will be available in either 8GB or 16GB models with either black or white available in the 16GB version. Check out all the tech specs. This device truely has everything that any mobile business user might need, and you can listen and watch your favorite music/movies/tv shows. Did I mention that TomTom has a GPS solution ready to buy for the new device? It does and Sling Media is working on a SlingPlayer client for the new device with a working prototype already shown to the media. So now the debate will be do I need a physical keyboard I can I use a virtual touch keyboard. For me it's not a hard choice. I can't wait to see what apps will be available at the app store. I guess I need to start researching plans. Bye, Bye Sprint and Palm Treo. Visit the Apple website for all the details and lots of pics.

BASEBALL MUSINGS

Have you heard the talk that the Rangers are trying to trade both Millwood and Padilla? I find this interesting because the Rangers could be in the race for the playoffs if this offense keeps up the production, and if they are in contention and trade the two veteran pitchers that they have then what? I would support trading Padilla, just because you never know what you will get from year to year / start to start, but I'm on the fence about Millwood. He's been a real asset in the clubhouse in my not there opinion and he was willing to sign a free agent deal with the Rangers.

And what about Milton Bradley do you trade him also? I would consider signing Bradley to a 3 year deal and make him the DH and a back up in Right.

With the production of Clayton Kershaw, John Danks, and Edison Volquez I'd really like to see some of the AAA and even AA pitchers in the majors.

Speaking of the minors, nine players from the Single A "Lumber Jacks" made the all star team in that league.

Josh Hamilton is not human. I think they need to test him and make sure he's not a Terminator.

Oh and one more thought. Chipper Jones hitting .409 I thought he was done after last year.

IRAQ

I have not ventured into political discussion on my blog thus far, but I do want to share the comments of one my very best friends who is serving our country in Iraq. The below are comments from a Naval Officer who is on the ground in Iraq and who works everyday to keep our Soldiers, Marines, Air Men and Sailors safe as they work to build a peaceful and democratic Iraq.

I'm happy to report that May had the lowest casualties over here since March of 2004. So we are really feeling the effects of a counter-insurgency strategy that IS working.

I think the media do a terrible job of sharing the story about this war with our citizens back home. So if you don't mind I'll get on my soapbox for a moment since I brought up the status of the counter-insurgency strategy. I worry that we will lose face here if folks don't understand a little more about this place and what we are accomplishing here.

First off, I think Iraq has fascinating potential and wonderful people. I have a tendency to be little cynical since I have been sent on deployment three times in the last four years, but when I bury my resentment about leaving my family I can truly see a lot of potential in this place. When I am out in town I see hundreds of piece-of-crap (normally I would use profanity there, but I'm sensitive to the fact that not everyone uses a sailors vocabulary piece-of-shit...so I am not going to say it) cars driving around. Then I think, "You know what. These guys have some fantastic mechanics that keep these cars running." When I look at the complexity and sophistication of the IED trigger devices that they try to detonate against us I am impressed by their electrical engineering skill. Then when I talk with the people there is a yearning for education. You don't see this sort of "yankee ingenuity" in so many other parts of the world and by this point I have been to so many armpits of the world I consider myself a fair judge.

The bottom line for me has nothing to with the reasons we came here in the first place....that is a political issue. The real fact is that WE ARE HERE, and WE SAID WE WOULDN'T ABANDON THESE PEOPLE. The Iraqi Security forces have made incredible gains in the last year. In fact the current operations in Basra, Mosul and Sadr City reflect a capacity to plan and Iraqi leadership initiative that has been critically missing prior to 2008. In another generation we will all be taking our kids here to see the fascinating origins of human society.

For example, Mosul is the modern name for Ninevah, where Jonah refused to go in the bible story. Ur, Abraham's home is here and the ziggurat there may pre-date the egyptian pyramids. The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is truly beautiful. The hot desert is only out west and I exaggerated the temperature a little bit in the beginning of this note.

Anyway, I am now the Officer in Charge of a Mobile Training Team that travels all over the country training folks on Counter-IED best practices. When I got here I focused on counter Radio Controlled IED's because the Navy's contribution right now is defeating these devices. However, I now teach a full spectrum course on defeating IED's, protecting yourself from the detonation if IED defeat efforts fail, and finally I teach tactics, techniques and procedures for identifying, capturing and killing the mother-hubbards that make these bombs. (Again I would have used profanity there, but if a person reading this does not like "shit" then I'm pretty sure they'd really be offended if I called an insurgent a mother-fucker. So I'm not going to do that.)

You know what....I take that back. I am willing to call some of these insurgents mother-fuckers and feel no shame. The insurgency here deserves every bit of our scorn and hatred. The things I have seen perpetrated by them against the citizens of this country exceed the perverse and demented limits of your collective imagination. I won't even write about it because no one needs to have those sorts of images in their head, but you would no sooner leave your baby in the pit with a rottweiler than abandon these people to Al Queda if you knew how vile and disgusting those men are.

Say a prayer and remember our Armed Forces daily and remember in November when you vote that your vote will decide the fate of the new Iraq.