Woods to sit out after knee surgery

Tiger Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee Tuesday, two days after finishing second at the Masters, and will be sidelined for at least a month.

The surgery, announced on his website, is on the same knee that required surgery in 1994 and again in 2002. He missed the first five tournaments of the 2003 season while recuperating from the latter.

He is expected to miss at least two tournaments he normally plays, the Wachovia Championship, May 1-4, and the Players Championship, May 8-11. If the recovery goes as expected he could return at either Memorial, May 29-June 1, or the U.S. Open, June 12-15 at Torrey Pines.

“I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery for after the Masters,” Woods said in a statement on TigerWoods.com. “The upside is that I have been through this process before and know how to handle it. I look forward to working through the rehabilitation process and getting back to action as quickly as I can.”

The surgery took place at the HealthSouth Surgery Center in Park City, Utah. Thomas Rosenburg, the same doctor who performed the 2002 procedure, was the surgeon.

Woods, who finished three shots behind champion Trevor Immelman at the Masters, has shown no signs of being injured this season, winning his first four tournaments worldwide with three victories, a fifth and a second in five PGA Tour starts. He leads in money won at $4.4 million.

On a right-handed golfer such as Woods, the left knee absorbs more of a physical toll than the right because it remains straight as the golfer’s weight transfers forward. Woods has a particularly violent move, exerting additional force to the knee.

Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, told the Associated Press that Woods had been in pain since the middle of last year.

“When he had it looked at by his doctors, arthroscopic surgery was recommended,” Steinberg said. “Tiger has played through the pain in the past, but knew it would be better for him to have the procedure done as early as possible.”

In 1994, Woods had a benign tumor removed from the knee and in December 2002, he had a cyst removed and fluid drained from the same knee.

After recovering from that 2002 surgery, Woods returned, coincidentally, at Torrey Pines in 2003 and won the Buick Invitational. He proceeded to win three of his first four PGA Tour starts that season, though he did not win a major in 2003 or 2004.

“This is something he’s already used to,” swing coach Hank Haney told the Associated Press. “He deals with stuff incredibly, like you would expect him to.”

Haney said he knew Woods had been having problems with the knee but was not aware of the surgery and said it did not affect his play at Augusta last weekend.

“He’s been having a lot of trouble,” Haney said. “I don’t think it affected his play. It affected his practice a little bit. He hit 14 greens in regulation on Sunday. Hard to say it was the knee.”

Woods’ missing tournaments is not something the PGA Tour likes to hear, but Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement that Woods has to do what’s best for his health.

“Of course, we’re disappointed when Tiger is unable to compete in a PGA Tour event,” Finchem said. “There is really never a good time for an athlete -- especially one of Tiger’s caliber -- to take weeks off from competition during the season. But his health concerns have to come first.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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peter.yoon@latimes.com