PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida (REUTERS) — U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk will miss most of the 2004 season due to torn cartilage in his left wrist.

Furyk, a nine-time tour winner, including last year’s U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, began having problems at the British Open in July when his wrist started to hurt.

What began as an intermittent pain slowly became quite sore, and by the end of 2003, Furyk had started to tape his wrist to play practice rounds and hit range balls.

After this year’s Sony Open, Furyk decided to rest the wrist, but last week he realized that time off was not working.

“Last week was kind of a tour of doctors,” Furyk said Wednesday. “I saw four to five doctors, got their opinions on what I should do. And the unanimous decision was surgery was the route to go. So I decided to have it ‘scoped and had surgery in New York Monday and flew back last night.”

The prognosis for Furyk is a three to six-month layoff, a time period that encompasses the entire major season and possibly the Ryder Cup.

Furyk was aware of his options when he agreed to the surgery but is eager to come back for the Ryder Cup.

“I know where three, four, five, six months, I know where every one of those weeks are,” Furyk said. “Six months is the week after the Ryder Cup. I’d really hate to miss that.

There’s going to be a lot of U.S. Opens, there’s going to be a lot of Masters, PGAs, British Opens in the future. “There probably won’t be so many U.S. Opens that I’m defending at, but Ryder Cup is only once every two years.”

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton believes that Furyk is an important part of his team but may have a difficult decision if Furyk does not make the team on points.

“I would love to see him return as rapidly as possible to true form,” Sutton said. “He’s been a great player, solid. The rock of Gibraltar.”