One bad knee? Eaks is a guy who won with two bad knees

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R.W. Eaks ices his knees for an hour and a half before playing every single round on the Champions Tour.

You're always going to remember 2008 for Tiger Woods' knee injury and that's fine. His freakish talent became that much more impressive when he won the U.S. Open on one leg. But you already know that story, so let me share a better one -- R.W. Eaks and the two bad knees.

It doesn't sound like a good name for a story and, quite frankly, it wasn't a great first half of the year for Eaks. Sure, he mustered up a couple of top-15 finishes, but Eaks was in so much pain that he didn't think he could play enough to keep his card for 2009.

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The Champions Tour players are allowed carts in all but a handful of events and his achy knees were thankful. Still, the bone-on-bone grinding in them was so bad that he would -- and still does -- need double knee replacement soon. The problems forced him to withdraw twice and the pain kept him awake at night. Word filtered down to the PGATOUR.COM offices in early July that Eaks might hang up the spikes for good.

The journalist in me saw a potential story there. What made matters worse was that Eaks grew up in Colorado Springs, where the Champions Tour was to hold the U.S. Senior Open Championship in early August. The former University of Northern Colorado basketball star -- he can't blame all of the knee troubles on golf -- finally had a chance to play for something again in his home city and he might have to miss it.

I was all set to call Eaks and ask him about potentially having the surgery and giving up golf. Then something strange happened. Eaks won. He won in late July at the 3M Championship and then, several months later, he successfully defended his title at the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn for his fourth career Champions Tour win.

In order to cope and compete, he ices his knees for an hour and a half before playing every single round. Then he ices them again for two hours each day. When he's not playing, he still has to ice them three or four times a day. The trainers who travel with the Champions Tour have taught him exercises to help his knees -- "I'm not a guy that likes to exercise. Exercise for me is changing the TV channel from right to left, and that's about it for me," Eaks says -- and he wears electronic stimulation knee braces while sleeping to ease the pain. For a guy who physically couldn't walk up stairs last December, it's a miracle he can still do his job and do it well.

"I never dreamed in January -- I was hurt so bad in January that I never dreamed I'd keep my card this year much less win two tournaments. So it's been a dream come true year for me," Eaks said after his second win of '08.

While PGATOUR.COM never did get that "Eaks quits golf" story, I think we were treated to a far better one.

Lauren Deason, PGATOUR.COM editorial coordinator, ices down both her hands for an hour and a half before writing every story.