There is more golf to be played, but the major moments are over when it comes to the United States Tour and the Ryder Cup, both of which were wrapping up in September. The big surprise here is that the sport continued to remain compelling, even though Tiger Woods was not present. Tiger Woods called the season to an end after he won the United States open in June with a broken leg and a knee that was desperately in need of surgery. His performance there could possibly be the apogee of his high flying career, and was virtually untrumpable and potentially foolhardy, considering that he did additional damage to his injured leg by hobbling to victory throughout the United States Open.

For now it seems that Tiger Woods is not likely to slip back inside the ropes before March of next year at least, and he may not even make it back until the Masters kick off in April. There is no real precedent for the dominant golfer in the world being away for such a long period of time. His lengthy absence from the green has been noticed by sponsors and television ratings, but longer term interests of his game have not seen such negativity. His former and future challengers, for example, are taking advantage of some unexpected elbow room which is allowing them to build up some confidence, and their own profiles as well. Golf can suddenly see a particular attractive proposition, since Woods' absence is allowing other golfers a small chance to shine, and creating quite a bit of potential competition come his return in the spring of 2009.

Tiger Woods is known for providing an aggressive swing, which puts an enormous amount of torque on his left injury. Unfortunately, he has an anterior cruciate ligament which is why he has had to step back a bit. The healing process for an ACL injury is six months no matter what you do, meaning he is out until at least January. Because he cannot practice at all without rotating, and further injuring himself in the process, he is only going to be at about 85% strength by the time his ACL has recovered, meaning he will have further mending to do before he can show up on the green again.

The clearest beneficiary of this opportunity to play without Tiger was Padraig Harrington, who easily soared into the top three in the world, ranking just behind Mickelson and Woods in the final two major championship tournaments of 2008. Vijay Singh, the longtime elder rival of Woods was no real factor in the majors having missed the cut in the British Open as well as the PGA. Anthony Kim of the United States and Camilo Villegas of Columbia are also seizing this opportunity to do some damage in Woods' absence, finishing the season with numerous victories of their own.

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acl injury, anterior cruciate ligament, apogee, attractive proposition, broken leg, challengers, elbow room, golfers, healing process, lengthy absence, masters, period of time, ropes, ryder cup, six months, television ratings, term interests, tiger, tiger woods, torque