Dr. Vern Cooley had tiger of a tale before he met Tiger Woods

PARK CITY — If he's heard it once, he's heard it the requisite thousand times … and counting.

"Fix my knee just like you fixed Tiger's."

And every time, orthopedic surgeon Vern Cooley has the same reply.

"OK."

It's going on four years now since Dr. Cooley walked into the operating room with his mentor and partner, Dr. Tom Rosenberg, and together they repaired the anterior cruciate ligament in Tiger Woods' left knee.

It was far from the first knee — or last — belonging to a star athlete that either of them had worked on. Half the U.S. Ski Team calls these guys by their first names, and they're no strangers to the Utah Jazz and other professional sports teams, as well as the athletic departments at various colleges and universities. And that's not to mention the literally thousands of knees — most of them belonging to your neighbors and mine — they've "fixed" over the years.

But save one billionaire superstar's career — one who publicly acknowledges your work — and the world never lets you forget it.

"We've become good friends," says Cooley of Woods, and while Cooley hasn't been consulted about trying to repair Tiger's more recent non-knee troubles, he is of the opinion that his golf career, given Tiger's work ethic and determination, will eventually rebound.

And he's absolutely confident of one thing. That left knee of his was repaired right, and in the right place.

"I think sometimes people who live in Utah have the mentality that you have to go somewhere else," he says, "when the truth is, you can find what you need right here."

Vern Cooley's life is proof of that.

He was born in Salt Lake City and raised in a house on Yale Avenue, not far from East High School. When he was 16 and completely absorbed in sports – playing on the East football team and throwing the shot put for the track team — a young, single guy driving a Land Cruiser moved into the house next door and gave him a new aspiration.

"The new guy's cool," Vern remembers his dad telling him. "You should get to know him."

The neighbor's name was Tom Rosenberg.