Fast Break
Golf
Woods’ future appears bright
Doctors who treat the kinds of knee and leg injuries that ended Tiger Woods’ victorious season have one word for his U.S. Open victory – remarkable.
“The fact that he had surgery two months ago and seemed to visibly be in pain with certain shots … I find it remarkable that he could play as well as he did and win a major tournament,” said Dr. David McAllister, a UCLA sports medicine specialist.
Still, there’s no reason to think it will be Woods’ last – despite needing surgery to repair a ruptured left knee ligament and treatment for a double stress fracture in the same leg’s shinbone, experts said Thursday.
But even if Woods returns to playing championship-level golf next year, as expected, his prospects further down the road are uncertain. The repeated wear and tear on his knee, including an operation that will be his third in five years, could result in early arthritis that might eventually slow down his career, said Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph, the Chicago White Sox’s team physician and an orthopedic surgeon at Rush University Medical Center.
“Given his natural ability and athletic talent, I think his chances are excellent. He should be able to get back and compete at the same level. How well he holds up long term over the next five to 10 years, that’s what’s in doubt,” said Bush-Joseph.
Woods, 32, announced Wednesday that he will have surgery to reconstruct the anterior cruciate ligament he ruptured last year. It will sideline him for the rest of this season’s PGA Tour and likely will require up to nine months of recovery, experts said.
He also revealed he needs time off to recover from stress fractures discovered after his April surgery to clean out cartilage damage.
College football
Hicks gets ticket after leaving jail
Troubled Washington State player Xavier Hicks Jr. has been ticketed for driving with a suspended license.
Hicks, 21, was released from the Whitman County Jail Wednesday morning after serving a sentence and drove toward Pullman.
But he did not have a valid driver’s license, so jail personnel contacted Pullman police. Police stopped Hicks when he entered town and issued a misdemeanor ticket.
Hicks had just concluded a 45-day sentence in the Colfax jail for stealing a debit card last September and for putting rubbing alcohol in his roommate’s contact lens case in January.
Rifle shooting
Senior shooter aims for gold
U.S. Army reservist marksman Libby Callahan of Columbia, S.C., will make history regardless of how she shoots her sport pistol in Beijing this summer.
At 56, Callahan is the oldest American on record to qualify for a U.S. Olympic Team.