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Posted: 9:35 AM- Several recreational golfers making the turn at Salt Lake City's Wingpointe Golf Course late Wednesday morning saw and heard the news for the first time.
"Tiger Woods will undergo season-ending knee surgery" rolled across the bottom of the clubhouse television screen, drawing a gasp or a "I'm not surprised" from almost every golfer who noticed.
"I knew it," said Ryan Olsen, a 33-year-old Sugar House resident. "I knew it had to be more than what they were saying [on U.S. Open broadcasts]. Man, way to go out with a bang."
Another golfer, Steve Paxton, said he got a call from a friend while he was playing the fifth hole, and was eager to get to the clubhouse to get more details.
"It just makes his playoff win [over Rocco Mediate] even that more impressive," Paxton said. "Just incredible."
The news means Woods will not play in the two remaining majors this summer - the British Open and the PGA Championship - and will also miss the Ryder Cup in September at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Most golfers at Wingpointe and Rose Park Golf Course on Wednesday said they would probably watch those broadcasts anyway, although most said it just wouldn't be the same.
"Oh, absolutely. I've been a golf bum for 54 years," said Bruce Wagstaff, 68, of Taylorsville. "I enjoy him being in tournaments, but I will still watch it."
Woods said in a news release on his Web site Wednesday morning that he would undergo reconstructive surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and that Woods sustained a double stress fracture of his left tibia, the bigger bone in his lower left leg, during "intense rehabilitation and preparations" leading up to the U.S. Open.
Woods had an arthroscopic procedure performed two days after the Masters in April by Dr. Thomas D. Rosenberg, a University of Utah Medical School graduate, at the Rosenberg Cooley Metcalf Orthopedic Clinic in Park City.
Mark Wankier, the clinic's business administrator, would not comment on whether Rosenberg is scheduled to perform Woods' reconstructive surgery.
Rosenberg also operated on Woods' knee in December of 2002 to remove some fluid around his ACL and some benign cysts, and Woods recuperated for a time at the Deer Valley home of his friend, former Masters and British Open champion Mark O'Meara.
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