Woods, on crutches, expects to play in US Open

Tiger Woods. AFP FILE PHOTO

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pennsylvania—Tiger Woods is using crutches and wearing a protective boot on his aching left leg to make sure he’s healthy enough to play the U.S. Open.

Woods doubts he’ll play the Memorial next week in Dublin, Ohio, but expects he’ll be “ready to go” for the U.S. Open from June 16-19 at Congressional.

Woods is bothered by pain in his left knee, left Achilles’ tendon, tightening in his calf, and a sore lower back. He says doctors have not mentioned leg surgery.

“I’ve had four surgeries on it,” Woods said on Tuesday. “Obviously, it’s not what it was when I was little.”

The golfing great hasn’t hit a ball in about two weeks.

“You just play through these things,” Woods said. “There’s a difference between being in pain and being injured.”

Woods said he’ll start training by the end of next week. That means he’ll go to the U.S. Open with little competition, although this is nothing new for him. In 2008, he had arthroscopic surgery after the Masters and didn’t play again until the U.S. Open. Doctors discovered a double stress fracture in his left tibia in the weeks before the major. Going against his doctor’s advice, Woods not only played the U.S. Open, he won it at Torrey Pines in a 19-hole playoff.

Now, he says his left leg is not nearly as bad as it was then.

His golf, however, is a different story.

In the 11 tournaments Woods played before the U.S. Open, he won eight times, was runner-up twice and didn’t finish out of the top five. In the 11 tournaments before this U.S. Open, he has only five finishes in the top 10.

Woods said he was more worried about his health in 2008.

“I’m a lot better off,” Woods said. “I feel that in the next week or so, I can start getting back toward that and start practicing pain free. That’s where I’m at.”

Woods spoke at Aronimink Golf Club to promote the upcoming AT&T National.

Woods withdrew after only nine holes this month at The Players Championship. He also fell out of the top 10 rankings for the first time in 14 years.

He has been No. 1 for 623 weeks in his career, by far the longest of any golfer since the rankings began in 1986. He had been No. 1 from June 2005 until Lee Westwood supplanted him last November.

“I haven’t played. It’s one of the reasons I’ve fallen as far as I have,” Woods said. “When I did play, I haven’t played well. Winning takes care of all of that.”

He acknowledged he did come back too early for The Players Championship. He hurt himself on the opening tee shot at Sawgrass. Woods’ status was borderline for the tournament to begin with, but he pressed on and did further damage. He won’t risk additional injury to the leg.

“It’d certainly be nice to come up here and play practice rounds,” he said, “and do all the other prep I do for the majors.”

Not a chance this week, even on a gorgeous Tuesday.

Woods posted on Twitter that he would donate $1 million to his foundation if no reporters asked him about his leg. There was no chance of that on the very first question. Woods later posted on Twitter he would donate the money anyway.