Michael Ventre

It’s like the hangover after the celebration. It’s vintage bottles of Dom Perignon and euphoria followed by a massive headache.

Tiger Woods gave us evidence of his magnificence. Then he gave us proof that he’s human.

The news is not good today, for those who follow golf closely — and for those who don’t but still have a sense of history. Tiger is shutting it down. The knee is not well. He managed to fool everybody with his gutsy U.S. Open victory, which went an extra day and an extra hole. When he winced, fans just assumed it was natural post-surgery discomfort.

It wasn’t. He announced Wednesday that, because of the knee, he would not play for the rest of the year.

Obviously, this stinks for Tiger. He now has 14 majors, and the British Open and PGA Championships are still to be played in ’08. If he continued to play golf like Michael Jordan used to play basketball, imagine what drama was in store for the world.

But it’s a much bigger blow for the sport and its fans. If golf is a blimp, this let the air out of it. Golf is now grounded.

And it may be damaged even further if Tiger’s layoff for the rest of ’08 isn’t enough. Entering the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, he was coming off knee surgery. If, between the lines, this latest announcement means that his career is also in jeopardy, then that diminishes golf forever.

Slide show   U.S. Open moments Scenes from golf's second major, taking place at Torrey Pines more photos

The British Open takes place at Royal Birkdale July 17 through the 20. All of the world’s top players will be there. Someone that you’ve never heard of, someone who is a household name only in some European households, will take the first-round lead. Maybe he’ll even win the tournament.

But the name on everyone’s lips will be Tiger. He’ll be home in Florida, his knee propped up on an ottoman, with his lovely wife and young daughter, grumbling about not being there and cursing the fates. And inside, he might also be feeling something that is foreign to him:

Doubt.

The PGA Championship is set for August 7 through 10 at Oakland Hills (Mich.), not to be confused with Southern Hills (Okla.), which is where Tiger won it last year. Michigan in the summertime tends to get a bit toasty, like Oklahoma. Tiger is accustomed to that. He isn’t used to sitting in air conditioning while doing exercises to strengthen his knee in order to get back to golf.

But that’s what he’ll be doing. And as he does, the rest of professional golf will try and cope with his absence.

This, of course, gives others an opportunity. Perhaps Phil Mickelson or Sergio Garcia or Ernie Els or even Rocco Mediate or any of the many other pretenders to Tiger’s throne will step up and seize the moment. Perhaps there will be a new “The Man,” albeit temporary.

Or maybe not so temporary.

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