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And he has stress fractures too. But he tore his ACL last year after the British Open. So he has been playing on a torn ligament for almost a year! Here’s what his father, Earl, had to say this past weekend in a commercial for Nike about his son:

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

Earl, of course, died some time ago but his words are still around. And now we are starting to see exactly what he meant when he said those words.

Tiger did have surgery for cartilage damage.

“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.”

–Yahoo Sports

So his damaged ACL brought about some cartilage damage and he had that fixed. But the damaged ACL was not repaired. Why? Maybe because it would have required him to stop playing golf this year. He would have missed the US OPEN.

This year’s US OPEN is special for Tiger. He grew up in the area. He has won a lot of tournaments at Torrey Pines.

“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.

So he walked around on a torn ligament for almost a year so he could play in THIS tournament. It’s not going to get better by itself. He knew he would have to have surgery but he postponed it so he could play this past weekend. And then he found out he had stress fractures too! The doctors told him not to do it according to his coach Hank Haney.

“Tiger looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m playing in 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.”

Tiger made his knee worse by postponing his ACL surgery. He dealt with the pain in order to play in the US OPEN.

The question is did he INCREASE the risk to his golfing career by doing things the way he did them. I guess it just depends on how much his knee can take before it becomes dysfunctional.

I doubt that anybody knows the answer to that question. But it’s clear that Tiger is not being too cautious about his situation.

Apparently life is a lot like the thirteen hole on the final round of the US OPEN to this great champion. He should have laid up but he went with the wood even after his adversary found the tall grass. He was hurt by that decision. He had to go to a playoff.

And then he won. He moved off the thirteen majors and all the unlucky inferences you can draw from that number.

He doesn’t believe in luck. He believes in Tiger Woods.

He believed that he was going to win the US OPEN.

And he did. Along with six or seven other tournaments. Now he can rest and do his rehab. So he can come back next year and win some more tournaments.

Don’t be surprised if you see some of the PGA pros on the tour with this guy taking up bowling next year. It must be incredibly demoralizing to wake up today and realize that you haven’t won any tournaments while Tiger has been winning a bunch with a torn ligament and other damage to his knee and leg.

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’

And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

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My eyes cracked open at the crack of dawn today. And I wobbled over to the window and looked out through more cracks in the blinds and the spaces between the leaves outside. And I was happy to see. . . COLOR!

That’s right sports fans. There was a little bit of pink or light red in the sky and this is a very good sign.

Because it means that in about thirty minutes if your intrepid photo guy can put on his pants and find his way down to the James River we may end up with something like this to show you before 8 am.

I even had time to go to Starbucks for a coffee and blueberry scone before heading down to the Pony Pasture to see all my winged friends. Because I have done this before and kind of know what I am doing now.

This is why you need a nice camera dude! What did you see last night on television that can compare with this?

The Tudors? Well, alright. You have a point. But you can record that sucker and go to bed. Or you can sleep less and do both. But in any case you need to be out there when the sun comes up.

Because this is when the magic happens.

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Here is a larger view on Blogger

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In this photo we can see the reflection of the sun as it peaks over the hill on the scales of this large fish. The Osprey is having him over for breakfast.

Who says birds are not hospitable?

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It’s the big Memorial Day Weekend boys and girls. What do we all have planned for these three days of fun? Are we going to the beach to see how much the water has warmed up since January? Are we staying home and cooking meat on the grill? MMMmmmmm. Meat.

Are we going to the pool and display our body fat to the world? Or are we going to go to bed and stay there for three days?

Being sick can be such a drag. I don’t appreciate enough the fact that I rarely stay in bed for more than a few hours to get some sleep. I mean if you are so sick you can’t even scrape yourself out of the bed and sit in front of a computer then you are REALLY NOT WELL.

I would have to be taking the BIG NAP in order for that to happen.

This morning I have been thinking about Lorelle again. I swore I wouldn’t go back to her blog because I was such an idiot the last time I was there. But I can’t stay away.

I did manage to refrain from leaving any comments however. So no damage done. Instead I am going to leave a comment here! Then if it turns out badly I can delete it!

Lorelle wrote a post about being a successful blogger and writing about things that interest lots of people. Makes sense, right? But then she says that lots of bloggers are writing about the same thing and that’s a drag. And clearly she is right again. Who wants to read the same thing over and over again?

But how do you write something very original AND something that lots of folks find interesting all the time? That’s pretty difficult it seems to me. And how do you know lots of folks will find it interesting when you are planning and writing it?

This is why I get crazy when I go over there. I end up with these contradictions and questions without answers. Maybe it’s clearer to you. Please let me know if you have the answer.

Anyway, it is a holiday weekend and Beth warned me several days ago that today (Saturday) needs to be a “cleaning day”. Because I invited a bunch of people over on Sunday (tomorrow). And so the house must be cleaned today. And the grass needs to be mowed.

But first the yard needs to be raked because of the freakin huge tree that likes to drop leaves all summer long. And these leaves can’t be ground up by the lawnmower she tells me. They can’t be mulched. They will just have to be picked up eventually in tiny little pieces if I run over them with the lawnmower.

I want so badly to have this tree cut down. But she refuses.

More frustration. Do I carry a lot of frustration around? Maybe so. Maybe i should let it all go and just breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Repeat five thousand times.

Alright. Things are much better now. Time to go rake, mow, dust, vacuum, arrange,empty, pick up, water, spray, shop and do other stuff too.

Do many things but not write. Stay out of this chair.

This is not going to be easy.

Update: I think that the idea is for bloggers who don’t have a particular blog theme like living healthy lives or collecting stamps or sports for example is this. . .Try to bring out your uniqueness as an individual. Try to express something that just has “you” written all over it. And try to make “you” entertaining or at least interesting. Connect to the things that interest you and help others in any way you can.

That’s what I am trying to do and maybe I am not succeeding. But that is the goal. Does it meet Lorelle’s criteria?

If it works I believe it does. And if it does not you all will sail away and I will have had fun trying.

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Update : Here’s a nice post written about Lorelle that helps me focus on the actual person who is behind the blog. It even has a photo of her. Apparently those are hard to find. She must be a distant relative of my wife.

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How do you feel about the future? Do you think of it as a fiction? It never arrives so it doesn’t exist? Or is it a valid reality that requires much effort to prepare for and enjoy?

Do you ever feel like your efforts in that regard (if in fact you make them) lead in other directions than those you intended so that your efforts are futile? Or are you convinced that you control your own destiny?

What is going to happen with our Western Civilization as time goes by? Didn’t we all have to take a Western Civ prerequisite in college?

And how do you cover hundreds of years of history in a few months and actually get something out of it? It’s like going down the highway at eighty miles per hour. How are you supposed to appreciate the great barn that some farmer built on a hill. Sure it’s a bright shade of red. But it’s also a blur.

But I am just rattling on this morning. We work for a better future and hope for the best.

Somebody was telling me the other day about this concept for an air transport system that is on the drawing board.

They want to test this thing pretty soon. They have a prototype that is about one eighth the size of the actual model.

So that means we may see something about 1000 feet long moving freight through the sky someday. It could also be used for tourism and include restaurants and movie theaters for that matter.

http://www.dynalifter.com/

It can travel at several hundred miles per hour my friend was telling me.

But it seems to me that if we go somewhere in one of these things it will be a more relaxed way of traveling. From the air things won’t seem to be going by as fast. And I doubt it will fly very high although I haven’t seen anything about that yet.

Maybe this will be a trend. I would love to have a little Dynalifter in the back yard waiting for it’s pilot to take it for a spin. We could fly down to the river and move upstream to a nice spot. And then put her gently down in a meadow full of flowers.

But maybe then the farmer with the red barn would get upset at these trespassers from the sky and let his prize bull out for some exercise.

Hopefully my little Dynalifter will have emergency lift-off capacity.

But I still think it’s a good idea. We wait for further information about the testing with interest.

It’s great to be able to leave the windows open at night and be awakened in the morning by birds singing again. I slept well last night after going out and watching the sunset. Although I didn’t stay away from the television because the Master’s Tournament is on this weekend. Beth and I enjoy watching Tiger Woods do his golf magic and wouldn’t miss him for the world. He is so funny sometimes. Apparently his wife has convinced him to stop cussing when he makes a bad shot.

Because when he hit it into the woods on the 18th Friday evening he let out a “Woodrow!” I didn’t hear anybody comment on this and I had no idea where Woodrow came from. I thought it was one of those pet names young couples invent for each other. But Google once again helped me out. Tiger’s full name is Eldrick Tiger Woodrow Woods?

His beautiful young wife, Elin, may have convinced him that since he has a child now who is watching his every move he shouldn’t swear on television.

I love the way Tiger manages to be a down to earth guy with human failings as well as a golfing superstar. And his effort on this day may have helped his cause. Because he managed to par the hole. The announcer noted that it was one of the most amazing par saves he had ever seen.

And now he is six back with only four guys between him and the lead. It will be a daunting task to overcome a six stroke deficit. And it will be interesting to take a look inside Trevor Immelman’s soul and see what is happening there as well. The world will be watching you Trevor and Tiger is somewhere back there. But “No Pressure!” big guy! Enjoy your day!

If Tiger manages to come back the rest of the way and win it will be pretty amazing. And in my opinion it will be because he acknowledged Woodrow instead of yelling at God in an unpleasant way.

Tiger is now officially among my most admired fellow human beings in the world. He’s not quite up there with people who sacrifice their lives for the rest of us (the title of hero is way overused sometimes). Let’s just say that as a sports guy he is number one in my book.

Earl did a great job.

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Congratulations to Gretchen Mashkuri on this fantastic photo.

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My son Jeremy was born just a couple of months after Tiger and he reminds me of him in lots of ways. He is at the top of my list of amazing people too.

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You all are welcome to come to dinner at our house anytime. And please bring Jordin Sparks along if you happen to see her.

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