No Woods In Bethesda This Week

Tiger Woods said yesterday he will not be coming to Congressional Country Club this week to play the glad-handing host at the AT&T National, his signature tournament on the PGA Tour. Woods said he will be on crutches for another three weeks after reconstructive knee surgery last Tuesday and that he has been advised by his doctors that it would be best to stay home in Florida and watch the event on television.

During a 25-minute conference call with reporters, Woods said he was not certain when he will be able to play competitive golf again and revealed he has had a sore left knee his entire professional career. He also said he was "very excited" that Congressional's board of directors has recommended that the club's membership approve a proposed new contract that would keep the tournament at the Bethesda course at least through 2017.

"My left knee has been sore for 10 to 12 years," Woods said. "It will be nice to finally have a healthy leg. They assured me my long-term health will be a hell of a lot better than it's been over the last decade. I'm really looking forward to that."

Woods said his left knee, now in a brace, was sore and swelled considerably Friday on the flight back to his home in Orlando from Park City, Utah, where he underwent the surgery. He also said the procedure involved both open knee and arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage and reconstruct his torn anterior cruciate ligament, including the graft of a tendon from his right hamstring to replace the ACL.

"I would love to be there," at Congressional this week, Woods said. "Unfortunately I don't think I can make it. Flying swells up my leg pretty good. So my doctors advised me to lay low and stay away from planes. . . . Flying is not exactly the best thing right now."

While Woods almost certainly won't be in attendance for the second year of his event, the long-term future of his $6 million invitational tournament that begins Thursday began to take shape.

The tournament will be played again at Congressional in 2009, but the club will not be available in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, all the greens on the championship Blue Course will be renovated to get them in proper condition for the 2011 U.S. Open.

Greg McLaughlin, the tournament chairman and executive director of the Tiger Woods Foundation, said he has been scouting potential venues for those two year, but no decision is imminent. Several sources indicated yesterday that Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia is among the leading candidates to stage the tournament, though the foundation also may look at other cities without a PGA Tour event, including Baltimore, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

But if Congressional's membership approves, the AT&T National will be back in the Washington area from 2012 to 2017. The board has recommended a three-year contract starting in 2012, with a three-year option on the deal that would keep the event at the club through 2017. Congressional is expected to earn about $1.5 million a year over the length of the contract, which still must be approved by a majority of the full membership.

A membership meeting to discuss the proposal is scheduled for July 29, and the mail ballot vote is expected to be completed by Aug. 19. More than 90 percent of the members voted last year to approve the initial contract for the first two years of the tournament (2007-08), and more than 80 percent voted again for a one-year extension for the 2009 event.

"I'm very excited about the board approving it," Woods said. "I want our golf tournament to be there in perpetuity. . . . Hopefully, we can keep it there."

Woods, whose most recent surgery was the fourth on his left knee since 1992, said he took a long layoff after the 2007 season to build up the muscles around his left knee. He tore the ACL running on a golf course after the 2007 British Open.

"I went through the rehab process and tried to get it ready for this year," he said. "It held up great, but unfortunately, as I kept playing on it, it became unstable and it caused some cartilage damage.

"Going into the Open, I basically couldn't practice. I couldn't play more than nine holes. After dealing with that, I decided to make the U.S. Open my last event of the season no matter how it turned out. Whether I missed the cut or I ended up winning the tournament, it was going to be my last event."

Woods was vague on the length of the rehabilitation and how long it would take before he returns to the game he has dominated since he turned professional in 1996, with 65 career victories and 14 major championships, four short of Jack Nicklaus's record.

"As far as long-term, I really don't know," he said. "Everyone heals at a different rate. Some people are back playing sports in six months, some are nine, some are twelve. No one really knows until we start the rehab process and see how this thing heals."

Woods will miss two major championships -- the British Open at Royal Birkdale in two weeks and the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills outside Detroit in August -- as well as the Ryder Cup in Louisville in September. He was asked about possibly serving as an assistant captain of the Ryder Cup team and made it clear he's not much interested.

"I'm not part of the team," he said. "Because of my procedure, I'm not on the team. It's about the 12 guys. It's not about me. I'm not part of that crew."