For the next month or so, the sports stage will be missing one of its leading men.

Tiger Woods had surprise arthroscopic surgery yesterday to repair cartilage in his left knee, a knee that has undergone treatment in the past.  The procedure came two days after he finished second in the Masters.  It's anyone's guess whether the discomfort in that knee affected Woods' performance at Augusta but the last one who would say so is Woods himself.

Woods made the announcement on his website.

Woods' recuperation from the surgery performed in Park City, Utah, is expected to be about the month.  He will missed the Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass in Florida but is expected to return for the Memorial in Ohio in late May and for the U.S. Open being held at Torrey Pines this year in mid-June.

Woods has had trouble with that same knee before.  In 2002, he had fluid drained from the knee and a cyst removed.  In 1994, he had a benign tumor removed from the knee. The surgery in 2002 was near the end of the year and he came back to win three of his first four events.