There will be much talk throughout the next few days about Tigers Woods missing the rest of the golf season.

Critics will both praise and slam Woods for competing in the 108th U. S. Open well before his left knee was healed. It’s a critic’s right to do both. However, if that criticism lacks at least a mention or acknowledgement of the consciousness of an elite athlete, it should fall on deaf ears.

All athletes are driven. That drive comes in the athlete package. It’s part of the instruction manual.

The amount of drive depends on the athlete. Woods is in rare air. He possesses more than most. He has talent. Nobody questions that. But he has a desire to be considered the best ever – a desire that, most importantly, Woods actually acts on.

Woods was asked Monday if doctors told him he could further injure his knee if he played. Woods smiled and slowly nodded his head up and down. Then Woods was asked if that nod meant, “yes.” Again, Woods smiled. And again, he slowly nodded. Finally, Woods was asked if he did further injure it.

Another smile, but the last time, Woods said, “Maybe.”

All athletes want to win. All will say they want to be the best. But it’s the elite athletes whose histories are saturated with sacrifice: missed childhoods, miniscule or detached social lives, failed romantic relationships, lost friends and bruised, battered and beaten bodies.

But elite athletes need to compete like they need to breathe. And the victories are the sweetest breaths of all. Pursuing them, and in many cases dominance, is encompassing.

Basketball great Bill Russell once told me about a neighborhood basketball court that would unlock its gates early in the morning and lock them well after sunset.

“Often were the times I was there to witness both occasions,” Russell said.

That’s acting on drive.

A foot injury caused Michael Jordan to miss all but 18 games of his second season. Jordan tried to return to the court earlier than doctors and team administration wanted. Jordan wrote in his book “For the Love of the Game” about his struggle to get back on the court and his dealings with owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause.

“‘You’re trying to lose games so you can get a better draft pick,'” Jordan wrote. “‘That hit a nerve with Krause. This was right around the time Tylenol capsules coated with cyanide were found. So Reinsdorf gives me this scenario: ‘What if I gave you 10 pills in a bottle and one of them was coated with cyanide? Would you reach in and take the risk of grabbing the wrong pill?’ I thought for a moment and said, ‘You know what, Jerry, that’s a hell of an analogy. But my answer is this: it depends on how bad the headache is.'”

Not playing hurts elite athletes more than playing hurt. If they’re playing, even hurt, they still have a chance to win, a chance to prove they are the best. Playing is their cure-all, their penicillin.

So, it wasn’t a surprise to see Woods play one of the four biggest tournaments of the year. Mentally Woods might have needed to play more than he’ll ever let us know. It wasn’t a surprise to hear the way Woods answered questions after Monday’s victory.

“… I’m not really good at listening to doctor’s orders too well,” Woods said, a championship-induced smile making his face glow. “So I end up – hey, I won this week. So it is what it is.”

Woods won.

That’s all he cared about. He played within the rules, and he won. He beat the best in the world at what they’re best at. More than that, he did it knowing he wasn’t close to being his best – two stress fractures and a torn ACL. For the elite athlete, that’s mental fortitude cured on the playing field. Woods will always have the knowledge of that accomplishment.

His opponents will, too.

Many golf fans have long wanted an antagonist for Woods, somebody who would consistently challenge Woods in the majors and the tour events, too. It’s not going to be guys named Phil, Vijay, Ernie or Sergio.

Still we just might have gotten the antagonist we wanted.

It’ll be interesting to see what wins more, Woods’ mind or his body.

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0252 or milo.bryant@gazettedev.gazette.com