Injury keeps Woods home

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By Barker Davis

Tiger Woods will be playing host to this week's AT&T National from Orlando, Fla.

Confirming what many suspected, Woods explained via a teleconference yesterday that his doctors have advised him to avoid subjecting his reconstructed left knee to travel, meaning he won't appear at Congressional this week to add a little marquee presence to an event sorely lacking in that department.

"I would love to be there. Unfortunately, I don't think I can make it," said the 32-year-old Woods, who had a new ACL constructed a week ago using a piece of tendon from his right hamstring. "Flying, unfortunately, swells up my leg pretty good. When I flew home from the procedure, it ballooned up a little bit. So my doctors advised me to lay low and stay away from planes. But who knows? I don't really listen to doctors all that well anyway."

Woods ignored the recommendations of his physicians by competing in and winning the U.S. Open three weeks ago, overcoming tremendous pain caused by a pair of stress fractures that occurred in the leg when Woods attempted to tighten the joint by pushing the muscle groups around it to the limit.

"People have played without ACLs and been very successful. Downhill skiers ski without ACLs, but they've got extreme-sized glutes and hamstrings, and that's their checking mechanism," said Woods, who isn't expected to return until the Buick Invitational in late January. "I tried to do the same thing. That's one of the reasons I worked out as hard as I did to try to develop those particular muscle groups.

"That surgery I had after the Masters was to get me through the rest of the '08 season and then have [the ACL reconstruction] done after the '08 season. But, as you know, I developed stress fractures and decided to bag it for the year. ... Basically, my left knee's been sore for 10, 12 years, so it will be nice to finally have a healthy leg. The doctors have assured me that my long-term health will be a [heck] of a lot better than it's been over the past decade, so I'm really looking forward to that."

In the interim, golf will be left without the player who has personified the game for last decade. This week, that void will be keenly felt at Congressional, where only seven of the game's top 30 players are in the 120-man field.

During the teleconference, Woods did not question the many absences among the game's top-12 players, including Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh.

Last year's inaugural event featured a much stronger field (which included Mickelson, Singh, Geoff Ogilvy, Scott and Rose), though organizers had just 112 days to prepare for the new tournament and Old Blue's greens lacked their current combination of speed and purity.

Meanwhile, Congressional's board has recommended to its members that it agree to play host to the event through 2017. The current contract ends after next year's event, at which point Congressional will use a two-year preparation window to play host to the 2011 U.S. Open.

Though neither Woods nor AT&T tournament director Greg McLaughlin has ruled out staying in the D.C. area for those two years, suburban Philadelphia's Aronimink Golf Club (Newtown Square, Pa.) is thought to be the favorite to be the temporary host in those years. If Congressional's membership votes to extend its hospitality, the AT&T National then would return to Old Blue (7,204 yards, par 70) for the following six years.

"I'm very excited about the board approving that. Now it's up to the membership to vote," Woods said. "You know, as I said, I want our golf tournament to be there in perpetuity. It is an unbelievable golf course and in our nation's capital on our nation's birthday. The stars couldn't get aligned any more than that. Hopefully, we can keep it there."