The First Look: A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier

A two-shot penalty for what Phil Mickelson did at No. 13 on Saturday isn’t enough, says Ian O’Connor. He needs to take another step — toward the exit sign at Shinnecock Hills.

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Tiger Woods announced today that he had an arthroscopic procedure last week on his left knee to repair minor cartilage damage. “I expect Tiger to make a full recovery,â€� said Dr. Verne Cooley, who performed the surgery. “We did what was needed, and also examined the entire knee. There were no additional problems.â€� Said Woods: “I would like to thank Dr. Cooley and his team. I’m walking now and hope to resume practice in the next few weeks. I look forward to traveling and playing in Japan in October.â€� He has committed to play next at The ZOZO Championship in Chiba, Japan, Oct. 24-27. Although his back has been the focus of concern for much of the last six-plus years, this marks the fifth time that Woods, 43, has had his left knee operated on.  “If it’s not one thing, it’s another,â€� he said at the BMW Championship. “Things just pop up.â€� Woods’ first left-knee operation was to remove a benign tumor in 1994. The second and third were arthroscopic procedures in 2002 and in April of 2008. He was told of two stress fractures in his tibia in May of 2008, won the U.S. Open in June, and eight days later had a fourth surgery, on his ACL. He missed the remainder of the 2008 season. For a player who missed significant time from 2014-17, when he had successful back-fusion surgery, Woods has been relatively healthy the last two seasons.     At the 2018 TOUR Championship at East Lake he notched his long-awaited 80th victory, the exclamation point on a terrific comeback season for a player whose career once seemed to be over. His 2019 season was highlighted by his Masters Tournament victory, his 15th major title. That was mostly it, though, for his 2018-19 season as Woods admitted to being worn out by the heroic victory at Augusta National. He missed the cut at the PGA Championship at Bethpage, and was T21 at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, despite having won on both courses. He missed the cut at The Open Championship, and withdrew from THE NORTHERN TRUST with a mild oblique strain. Although he won the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships at Medinah, Woods never contended there, either, with a T37 at the BMW. At 42nd in the FedExCup, his season was over. When healthy, Woods is still a formidable player; he’s still ranked eighth in the world. He will captain the U.S. Team at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne this December, and has not ruled out playing on that team himself.

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. – The elusive albatross has landed once again.  Last week, it was Harris English holing a 3-iron at the 11th hole at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship. Deuce. Thursday in Round 1 at the Valspar Championship, Scotsman Russell Knox notched one of his own at the 575-yard 11th hole at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course, holing a 3-wood from 275 yards for double eagle, his first on the PGA TOUR. Knox said he was just trying to get his second anywhere up near the green, but flushed the shot perfectly, right on line, and it carried the bunker, took a few hops and vanished in the hole for two.  “I mean, a massive bonus, obviously. It’s really cool to have an albatross,â€� said Knox, who’d covered his first nine holes in 38, then roared home in 6-under 29 to shoot 4-under 67. “I think it’s a bigger deal to have a hole-in-one, to be honest – even though it (an albatross) is more under par. Obviously, it was cool to have it. … It’s great to go from plus-2 to minus-1 in one hole. That changes your outlook of the day real quick.â€� Two double-eagles in eight days on the PGA TOUR? Pretty rare. There were only two recorded all of last season: Brooks Koepka made two on No. 16 in THE PLAYERS and Satoshi Kodaira had an albatross on the first hole in the opening round of the Fort Worth Invitational at Colonial.  English made his second last week by holing a 3-iron from 236 yards, joking to his caddie, ‘That is so much easier than putting. Why don’t we just do that every hole?â€� Knox said he had one other double-eagle in his life, holing a 6-iron on the finishing hole at his home club in Scotland, Nairn Dunbar. He said he was a young teen at the time, and the shot allowed him to win his club competition. “It was a shortish par-5, just under 500 yards,â€� Knox said. “But you couldn’t see, you kind of hit up over a hill and there’s a huge gully in the green and it went in. I actually looked out of bounds over the green before I even looked into the hole then, so that was nice to go in. I think I actually won the little tiny tournament by one shot, too. It’s a one-day little like club event, a little junior medal.â€� And where’s the medal that Knox won that day? “No idea,â€� he said, laughing. Thursday, Knox took the ball with which he made a two and handed it to a youngster who was accompanying the group as a walking scorer.  “I signed another ball for him, and let him keep (the double-eagle ball). Maybe he’ll go play with it. Good on him.â€�

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