Tiger's coach expects him to bounce back stronger

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tiger Woods will make a strong comeback when he returns to the tour next season, the world number one's swing coach said on Thursday.

Woods announced on Wednesday he would have reconstructive surgery on his left knee and would skip the rest of the season to rehabilitate.

"I wouldn't rate it as any concern at all," coach Hank Haney told ESPN Radio in an interview on Thursday. "Tiger is going to come back and be better than he ever was."

Woods's announcement on Wednesday came two days after he won the U.S. Open in a 19-hole playoff. It was the American's 14th major title in his first tournament in two months since having surgery to clean out cartilage in the knee.

"He's had trouble with his knee ever since I've been with him for the past five years and I know he's had trouble with it before that," Haney said. "Now he's going to have a stable knee."

"I just expect it will be such a positive thing for Tiger and his whole career, giving him more time to practice. He has been really limited in what he could do."

Haney did not think Woods would have to make major changes in his swing.

"It's really just the snapping of his leg as he comes through the ball," he said.

"This was something we worked on changing some five years ago. We eliminated some of the pressure off Tiger's knee. That was the first thing he told me that he felt like he needed to do.