Tiger Won't Even Be Practicing Until 2009

For all those that were expecting Tiger Woods to rally back from this knee surgery in time to lead the Ryder Cup team to victory in Hollywood fashion, I've got some bad news for you.

Our main man said he won't even be swinging a club until the ball drops in Time Square.

"As far as swinging a club, that's not going to happen until next year," Woods said in a newsletter sent Tuesday to readers of his Web site, tigerwoods.com. "I just don't have a choice. We simply don't know what type of swelling there would be or if there would be any residual effects the next day once you start wheeling and dealing on the knee. Everyone's body reacts differently. I could putt right now, but I'm not going to do it."

Maybe the reason he isn't going to putt is because if he makes putts, he sometimes does this and I heard that isn't great on the body joints.
Nonetheless, Woods did say he's riding the stationary bike a couple of times a day which is pretty much all he can do at this point. I guess we will see if he lives up to the proclamation made by swing coach Hank Haney about his ability to start working the short game.

"It's just letting it heal and doing the rehab and strengthening it more than anything," Haney said. "He'll be able to work on his chipping and putting in pretty short order and I would think he'll be able to practice that for a long time. It's just a question of when he can start hitting full shots. And that's all speculation. "If he's working out and he has swelling, he's got to back off and let it calm down. Maybe then you've lost a day or a week or 10 days. None of this has happened, but it's a possibility. We just don't know. The timetable he is on would put him back before Augusta, but you're really just guessing," he said.

So, as ratings continue to fall like our economy without Woods in the field, it will be a guessing game when we get to see the maestro back at work. The scary thing is, would any of you bet against him at the Masters? Yep, me neither.