GOLF:

Of all the things I have seen part-time Corona del Mar resident Tiger Woods do, last weekend might have been the most impressive.

There were no theatrics to the grimaces on Woods’ face, no exaggeration required as he limped down the fairway and no embellishment needed as he used his driver as a cane.

Basically you had a one-legged golfer who had trouble finding the fairway put together five rounds that will forever be immortalized as one of the greatest U.S. Opens.

No one knew how bad the damage was, but Wednesday, Woods released a statement detailing his injury and it was worse than anyone could have imagined.

The anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee was torn and Woods is pulling out of the rest of the season to undergo reconstructive knee surgery.

In addition to the knee, Woods also suffered a double stress fracture of his left tibia that was discovered last month. Woods apparently received the stress fractures while rehabbing the knee in preparation for the U.S. Open.

It was a tournament doctors advised him not to play. They knew the damage to Woods’ left leg and knee and golfing would have worsened the condition.

Two months after left knee surgery, the third on that particular joint, Woods began to ready himself for the U.S. Open.

A week before the nation’s championship, Woods was at a Newport Beach gym working on his knee, preparing it for 7,600 yards of daily walking. By the time he was done with practice rounds and five rounds of competition, Woods had walked approximately 28 miles.

If this had been any other tournament, Woods would have withdrawn and no one could have blamed him.

Torrey Pines is a fairly up-and-down course and the elevation changes can wreak havoc on a sore knee.

“I was determined though, to do everything and anything in my power to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is a course that is close to where I grew up and holds many special memories for me,” Woods said in the statement. “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 originally ruptured the ACL in 2007 following The Open Championship when he was running at his home in Orlando, Fla. At that point, he elected to not have surgery and instead attempted to play through the pain.

Following the injury, Woods went on to win five of the next six events he entered, including the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the PGA Championship, the BMW Championship, the TOUR Championship and the Target World Challenge, while also finishing second at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He carried that streak over into 2008, winning his first four events of the season: the Buick Invitational; the Dubai Desert Classic; WGC-Accenture Match Play; and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Woods rested the knee after his tournament, the Target World Challenge in early December, but was still feeling pain in early 2008.

After the Masters in April he had the surgery to clean out cartilage damage and it was discovered then the extent of the ACL damage. The doctor told Woods not to play in the U.S. Open, but Woods knew he wasn’t missing this tournament.

If it had been anywhere other than Torrey Pines, Woods probably would have skipped it. The San Diego course means so much to him and he has won the last four Buick Invitationals held there.

So this performance is bigger than Willis Reed coming out of the tunnel in the NBA Finals, bigger than Michael Jordan playing with the flu, bigger than Ken Venturi playing the U.S. Open with heat exhaustion. This might even rank up there as high as Jack Youngblood playing in the Super Bowl with a fractured leg.

We always knew Woods was the most talented golfer in the world. Now we know he is also the toughest.

For a golf tip on how to make short putts from Pelican Hill instruction director Glenn Deck, click here

JOHN REGER’S golf column appears Thursdays.