"Speculation regarding the severity of Woods’s condition will abound."

Larry Dorman tries to settle the medical questions around Tiger's physical issues and gets some interesting feedback from doctors.

“The knee acted up and then the Achilles’ followed after that and then the calf started cramping up,” Woods said. “Everything started getting tight, so it’s just a whole chain reaction.”

This chain reaction began with the same knee that was surgically repaired twice in 2008 by the orthopedic surgeon Thomas Rosenberg. The first operation was an arthroscopic one after the Masters that April, and the second was a reconstruction of Woods’s anterior cruciate ligament in June after his stirring United States Open victory at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Dr. Michael Leighton, an orthopedic surgeon in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., who has operated on professional athletes and numerous golfers, said that Woods’s pain while walking could be attributed to probable bruising of the tibial plateau or the medial femoral condyle resulting from the M.C.L. sprain at the Masters.

“It’s purely conjecture on my part, sort of common things happen commonly,” said Leighton, adding that one would have to see the results of Woods’s magnetic resonance image test to be sure. “If you looked at his M.R.I., that’s probably what you’d see.

“People can stand with an M.C.L. sprain, and people can stand with an A.C.L. sprain or tear, but it is the bone bruise that prevents them from putting the full weight down, or jogging or turning on to that side. If he has a bone bruise, that’s legitimately painful.”

Gene Wojciechowski says it's time for Tiger to shut it down for a while.

Forget about breaking Nicklaus' record. Woods needs to first break par. And more than anything, he needs to think long and hard about going on the disabled list.

Woods isn't helping himself or his chase of history by playing hurt. He somehow limped to a win at Torrey Pines three years ago at the Open. It isn't going to happen again.

"Give me a few days to see what the docs say and we'll take a look at it," Woods said.

Dr. 42 On The Front said it already: Woods needs to shut it down. The sooner, the better.