Goosen plays down Woods remarks

Retif Goosen insists his comment that Tiger Woods exaggerated his knee injury at the US Open was meant to be a 'light-hearted' remark.

The world number one appeared to be in some pain during his extraordinary success at Torrey Pines, having only just returned to the sport after knee surgery nine weeks earlier.

South African Goosen, himself a two-time US Open winner, had seemingly questioned whether Woods was faking the problem in remarks made following the American's play-off win over Rocco Mediate.

He told German TV: "It just seemed that when he hit a bad shot his knee was in pain and on his good shots he wasn't in pain.

"You see when he made the putts and he went down on his knees and was shouting 'Yeah' his knee wasn't sore.

"Nobody really knows if he was just showing off or if he was really injured. I believe if he was really injured he would not have played."

But speaking to the Times, Goosen tried to put the record straight, insisting: "I was being light-hearted. No one but Tiger knows how badly hurt he was. But if he was really badly hurt, he would have withdrawn wouldn't he?"