Following his amazing victory in the US Open, Tiger Woods has announced that he will miss the rest of the 2008 golfing calendar to have surgery on his injured left knee.

The world number one limped all the way as he won his third US Open title, playing through the pain barrier to beat Rocco Mediate in a sudden-death play off that had everyone glued to the action.

It was expected that Tiger Woods would miss the Open at Birkdale but the news that he looks set to be unavailable for the rest of the year will disappoint American fans. They are going to have to attempt to beat Europe in the Ryder Cup without their main man. It starts in September and Woods will still be recovering from surgery at this stage.

There is bound to be disappointment all over the world with this news. Whoever is holding a tournament during the remainder of the year would have been looking forward to seeing Tiger Woods in action. Now they know this won’t happen, it will take away that extra something about the event. He is the greatest golfer the World has ever seen and will always get the crowds following him round a course.

My feeling is that if his knee is really that bad, then Tiger Woods and his medical team have to act now. As US Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger says, it is all about making sure Tiger Woods gets healthy again. It would be silly for him to carry on and damage his knee further. This way, he can have a few months out and come back stronger than ever.

The remarkable thing about this whole situation is that it makes his victory in the US Open even more special. Although he was limping, it wasn’t made too obvious that the injury was this serious. Had we known he needed cruciate ligament surgery, then many golf bets may have been placed on Mediate to come out on top as the play-off got underway.

Let’s just hope that this great sporting talent is back at his best in 2009, so he can continue his march towards Jack Nicklaus’ record for major championship titles.