Bad news for US Open hopefuls. Tiger Woods’ knee will apparently be fine by the time the US Open begins at Torrey Pines in June.

Tiger Woods says his left knee is “right on schedule” for recovery in time for the U.S. Open in June, if not sooner.

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Woods underwent arthroscopic surgery on April 15. He underwent a two-week check-up earlier this week in Utah and told Golf Digest.com: “It went great. Everything is right on schedule.”

As he has in past weeks, Woods would not put a timetable on his return. The U.S. Open is June 12-15 at Torrey Pines, north of San Diego. Jack Nicklaus’ tournament, The Memorial, is two weeks earlier and is generally on Woods’ schedule.

“The doctors said I should be able to play in four to six weeks after the surgery, but there are no guarantees about anything right now,” Woods said on Golf Digest.com. “I’m just going to work hard and do what they tell me to do.”

Tiger has won at Torrey Pines so often that there really can’t be anyone else who could possibly have a chance.

When first I saw this, I had to check the date to make sure it was April 15, and not April 1. From the PGA Tour Site:

Tiger Woods underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Tuesday at Healthsouth Medical Center in Park City, Utah.

“I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery after the Masters,” Woods said of his knee procedure.

Woods is expected to be out for between 4-6 weeks. The rehabilitation schedule could threaten his title defense at the Wachovia Championship May 1-4, as well as his appearance at THE PLAYERS Championship the following week.

The U.S. Open, which will be played at Torrey Pines, a course where Woods has won six times, is eight weeks away. Woods finished second to Trevor Immelman on Sunday at the Masters Tournament, the season’s first major championship.

“I made the decision to deal with the pain and schedule the surgery after the Masters,” Woods said on his Web site. “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.”

Woods won his first three starts this season—and seven of eight PGA TOUR events dating back to the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational last August. His victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard last month gave the 32-year-old a total of 64, tying him with the legendary Ben Hogan for third all-time.

PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem said Woods’ presence will be missed.

Wow. I was just kidding yesterday when I wrote that Tiger might not win ANY majors this year. But lets see. He’ll have four to six weeks of rehab. The US Open is eight weeks out. He might be rusty. But then, he’ll be playing on a course that he absolutely owns. And coming of his last surgery, he won two of three.

I think he’s still got to be the favorite at Torrey Pines.

As I’m watching the webcast of the Amen Corner from the Masters, it occurred to me that Tiger Woods’ winning the Grand Slam of golf (Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA Championship, for those not in the know) could actually hurt the PGA Tour. It’s a bit of a stretch, perhaps, but follow my reasoning.

First, all of the attention of golf fans will be focused on four events—none of which are owned by the PGA Tour. If Tiger wins the Masters, all eyes will be focused on the US Open—looking right past the suddenly irrelevant Players Championship—in spite of the Tour’s attempts to position it as the fifth major. In the face of a potential Slam, it simply won’t matter. Then everyone will lay back and wait for the Open Championship ... then the PGA. None of the other events will matter.

Second, attention on Tiger’s run at the slam distracts from the Tour’s attempts to create a buzz with the FedEx Championship. Who gives a rat’s patootie who is in the FexEx cup lead when Tiger is in the hunt for the Grand Slam?

And finally, if Tiger does manage to pull it off—or even if he takes it down to the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills but falls short—it’s not out of realm of probability that he sits out the FedEx Cup four match finale, citing fatigue. And rightfully so. The pressure at that point would have been a lot even for someone as stoic as Tiger.

The Chicago Sun Times Media Critic says that as good as he is as a golfer, Tiger isn’t very good as a pitch man.

OK. So Tiger Woods is a pretty amazing golfer. But truth be told, he’s not the most compelling of performers when he’s put in front of a camera and asked to pitch a product to skeptical consumers. All right, maybe he’s a bit more compelling to his ardent fans. But to the general public—not so much.

Which is probably why Element 79/Chicago, which is still clinging to the Gatorade account, decided to cast Woods as an astronaut golfer and put him on the moon in a new spot called “Moon Shot” to promote Gatorade Tiger, a line extension that is apparently basic Gatorade with more electrolytes. Thankfully, Woods isn’t asked to say a single word in this new commercial.

I agree. Most of Tiger’s ads have been—how can I say this nicely?—less than convincing. I don’t believe for a minute that he drives a Buick. The new razor ads are ridiculous. And the less said about the moon suit ads, the better.

Still, for the enormous sums the companies are paying Tiger, they must have figured out that they’re getting a good return on their dollar. Gatorade is paying him $100 million for the right to produce Tigerade. They must figure that there are millions of golfers out there who can’t wait to consume a drink based on a chemical analysis of Tiger’s sweat.

I’ll stick to water.

ESPN.Com’s Jason Sobel has a great line about Tiger’s five tournament winning streak, and Byron Nelson’s eleven:

Weakened fields and easier venues be damned, Nelson’s streak is more prodigious than it gets credit for. The greatest golfer of all time just played the greatest six months of golf in his career … and still came up six tourneys short? Wow.