Tiger's ACL Injury Good for his Golf Game?

In a recent announcement, Tiger claims he's been playing with a torn ACL since just after the British Open last year, and that he will now have surgery to repair the problem. Last week's US Open was the first time Tiger was visibly in pain over that time, a period in which he was arguably the most dominant of his career.

Since the 2007 British Open, Tiger is a staggering 10-3 in the events he's entered, with two 2nd's and a 5th in the other 3 tournaments. He has won the PGA Championship and the US Open, along with the last two tournaments of the inaugural Fed Ex Cup end-of-year showdown. He won 2 World Golf Championships and finished 5th in another. He finished 2nd at the Masters. Many articles earlier this year described Tiger as playing the best golf of his career and everyone thought this could be the year he won the Slam. So how bad was this ACL injury? Did it actually benefit Tiger to have a bad ACL? In the 2007 season prior to the ACL tear, Tiger was a comparatively poor 3-11, with two 2nd's but no victories in the 3 majors. He had 3 finishes outside the top 10, none since the injury.

The media is almost certainly going to use this announcement, which he so carefully withheld until after the US Open when it would either excuse or glorify his performance, to decide that the US Open was the greatest accomplishment EVER in any sport. But was it the ACL that was actually causing any of the pain we saw on TV? Did his operation in the spring actually cause more pain? What about the double stress fracture in his left leg? Did he get the stress fracture rehabbing, or was that also there while he was dominating?

I don't doubt that Tiger was in some pain this last weekend. The question is what caused the pain. The ESPN article does not include any mention of re-injuring or further tearing the ACL, so why have the surgery now? Rehabilitating the stress fracture won't take that long. Woods' website says that the April arthroscopic surgery removed damaged cartilage caused by the ACL. Does that mean that removing the cartilage actually caused more pain and the surgery was counter-productive? What's really going on here? Is the pain from the ACL, the stress fracture, or the surgery in April? Why was the surgery in April necessary when he was so dominant? Clearly, if he can walk 5+ miles on the golf course everyday and take hundred of golf shots, it wasn't interfering with his daily life too much. Maybe he couldn't play on his flag football team because sharp cuts hurt, but his ability to perform at the highest level in the occupation of his choice had never been better. Lots of other athletes, like Steve Nash, play through much greater pain on a daily basis. We have not been given the full story here, and it's painfully obvious that we're being played.

UPDATE:
Here's some more information coming from Hank Haney, Tiger's swing coach, who explains and answers some of the questions above. Apparently, the stress fractures were caused by the rehab. Combining that with rushing back on a weak knee probably explains the pain we saw last weekend. I would still speculate that Tiger expected things to improve after the scope, not get worse as they did. It would be interesting to hear Tiger compare the pain at the Masters pre-surgery to that at the US Open.