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There's no measuring Tiger Woods's prodigious talents without a generous dollop of hyperbole.

So here goes: He's as limber as a prima ballerina, as powerful as a thoroughbred and as calculating as a chess grandmaster. He is Superman cloaked in the unassuming uniform of a Florida retiree.

And you are not.

But of all the superhero powers Mr. Woods displayed during his epic U.S. Open victory on Monday, the most impressive was something any duffer can emulate - given ample doses of Advil, that is.

The story of the tournament was Mr. Woods's ability to play on a knee that was in dire need of season-ending ACL surgery. While weekend warriors may never smash 360-yard drives or routinely drain 12-foot putts like Mr. Woods, there is nothing stopping them from disregarding medical advice and playing through pain just like their golfing idol.

Sports physicians already see steady numbers of patients who, against better counsel, put their bodies on the line for recreational sport - and for stakes considerably lesser than a U.S. Open championship.

"We see it from time to time," said Preston Wiley, co-director of the University of Calgary's Sport Medicine Centre. "Maybe they'll have a real important company golf tournament or something like that they feel they just can't miss."

But the consequences can often be just as severe for wannabe pros as they were for Mr. Woods, who cancelled the rest of his playing season on Wednesday to recover from a torn ACL and a stress fracture in his left tibia.

Doctors told Mr. Woods exactly what he risked by playing a notoriously brutal tournament. The 32-year-old shrugged off those concerns.

"I'm not really good at listening to doctors' orders too well," Mr. Woods joked during a post-tournament news conference.

"You have to play through it and suck it up and get it done."

That motto could be dangerous in the minds of average sports enthusiast, doctors say.

"Playing through considerable injury is always a bad idea," Dr. Wiley said. "It's the same as someone with uncontrolled epilepsy going swimming. There's so much risk involved."

That element of risk is exactly what attracts so many amateur athletes down the same self-destructive path that Mr. Woods took.

"Sometimes that macho spirit just takes over," said Chris Woollam, a sports physician and medical director for the Toronto Marathon.

The human body will give off distinct signs indicating that rigorous activity may lead to serious long-term damage.

"For the average person, if it's just an ache, sure you can work through it," said Mike Wilkinson, team doctor for the Vancouver Canucks. "Once it becomes associated with numbness, swelling, tingling, weakness, or if there is consistent mechanical pain, it's time to hold off."

Shoulders and knees seem to take the brunt of injury ignorance. Baseball players with partial rotator-cuff tears often continue throwing and hitting until their shoulders are virtually beyond repair. Tennis elbow is another injury that weekend athletes often deaden with painkillers, generally exacerbating the damage in the process.

"The best thing I can do is educate patients on the risks of activity," Dr. Woollam said. "If they're smart, they'll err on the conservative side."

But heroic tales of professional athletes battling through busted limbs and aching joints can cloud the lay athlete's judgment.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bob Baun became a national hero after scoring an overtime goal in the 1964 Stanley Cup finals on a broken ankle.

In the 2002 Stanley Cup finals, Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman scored 23 points in 23 games on a knee so wonky he was essentially skating on one leg.

Curt Schilling rallied the 2004 Boston Red Sox to a World Series victory by pitching two gutsy games with bloody sutures anchoring a tendon in his right ankle.

These heroics have an inspirational effect on non-professional athletes, one that even Mr. Woods has come to question.

"Now," he stated in the same website post in which he revealed the full extent of his injury, "it is clear that the right thing to do is listen to my doctors."