I don't want to claim I'm a prophet or anything, but for years I've been saying "whoa!" to all the experts who were counting the days until Tiger Woods reached Jack Nicklaus' golden record of 18 majors.

There are any number of things that could happen between now and then, I said, like one of the ancient sages, such as Isaiah. Or maybe Ismail is closer to it.

Among the many possibilities I mentioned was injury. Happens all the time in sports, and anyone who ever saw Woods' savage swing, with all that torque, could have foreseen such a thing if they hadn't all jumped on the Tiger bandwagon.

Woods initially tried to give the impression his knee surgery was a routine arthroscopic procedure, but of course we now know it's much worse than that. The fact it's the left knee, where he plants, makes it worse.

Even worse was the strain he put on it after he injured it while jogging. Woods played in 12 tournaments after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament.

Anyone who's remotely familiar with sports knows the ACL has felled many a great athlete. Some come back from serious ACL injuries, many do not.

Woods himself has said it may be two years before he re-gains his former form. I say he will never re-gain it. It isn't just the knee, it's the confidence that goes down with it.

Woods may win a tournament or two after he comes back, but he will never re-gain the form that had everybody certain he would surpass Nicklaus.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but in this way I am like Muhammad, who said: "Say what is true, although it may be bitter and displeasing to people."

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