By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 3, 2008

They held the opening ceremony for Tiger Woods's AT&T National yesterday without the recuperating host and No. 1 player in the world. When the first ball is struck today at 7:10 a.m. at Congressional Country Club, many of the game's top players Woods defeats with some regularity also will not be on the grounds of the lush Bethesda course.

Woods's tournament, in its second year, is a $6 million invitational event being played on a challenging 7,255-yard, par-70 venue that will host the 2011 U.S. Open. But just two players in the latest top 10 of the world rankings and a total of five in the top 20, including Steve Stricker (No. 8), the runner-up in 2007, and defending champion K.J. Choi (No. 10) will be here.

Phil Mickelson, who played last year and missed the cut; Ernie Els, who won the U.S. Open on a slightly differently configured Blue Course in 1997; and Sergio García, who hoisted the trophy at the Booz Allen Classic at Congressional in 2005, are among the marquee names otherwise occupied this week. But Woods, recovering at home in Orlando from reconstructive knee surgery 10 days ago, insisted he has no problems with anyone who decided not to play in his signature event.

"You have to understand: Guys have their own playing schedules," he said this week. "They have their own thing. Some of the guys are over in Europe, and they have time they want to spend with their family. So it all depends on everyone's personal preference."

And health.

Adam Scott, No. 4 in the rankings, is recovering from a broken hand incurred two weeks before the U.S. Open, a tournament he played thinking the injury was simply a broken pinkie finger. He might be doubtful for the British Open in two weeks, as well. No. 11 Vijay Singh has been plagued in recent weeks by an injured oblique muscle in his rib cage and is trying to heal to play at Royal Birkdale, as well. And 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson had entered but was forced to pull out with a bad case of wrist tendinitis.

"I don't know if I can characterize it as an aberration or not," PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said when asked about so many high-profile absences yesterday. "The unique factor right now is we have four top players hurt [including Woods]. We know for a fact that three of them at least wanted to play and couldn't. I said last year . . . all of the pieces are here for it to be an especially good tournament on the PGA Tour. I think that is the case. When you add some of the players that are hurt next year, Tiger being back, I really feel good about it."

Several top players, including Els and García, have homes in Europe and went back to play and practice for the Scottish Open the week before the British. And this past Monday, the day after the Buick Open ended in Grand Blanc, Mich., many players in that field entered a grueling 36-hole British Open qualifier on two courses in the Detroit suburbs.

Traveling to play on a U.S. Open-style course after withstanding that ordeal might not have been particularly palatable to some players who simply went home to rest and have a Fourth of July barbecue. Next year, that British Open qualifier will be played in Dallas in May and should not be a factor in players' decisions regarding Woods's event.

"Yeah, it gives an appearance of a lot weaker field," said Fred Funk, the Maryland native who will draw large galleries here this week. "I guess guys are a little tired. They just came off the U.S. Open, they had the Memorial, those are big ones, and the British is coming up, so a lot of guys are probably gearing up for that."

Paul Goydos, who lost to García in a sudden-death playoff in the Players Championship two months ago, will be playing here this week, and also has qualified for the British Open. Yesterday, he laughed out loud that "Tiger is trying to win 18 majors; I'm trying to play 18 majors. I think the PGA Championship could be my 18th."

He also said far too much is made about strength of tournament fields, particularly based on the world rankings.

"The media is trying to decide what's a good field and what's a bad field, and I don't think they are very good at deciding that," Goydos said. "We have these arbitrary rankings and those are very good at identifying the best couple of players, maybe the next 10. But are they good at identifying the next 90? In my opinion, no.

"I think we shouldn't be marketing Phil and Tiger. We don't need to do anything extra for Phil and Tiger to be the PGA Tour. They should be marketing other players. I don't think they should be marketing me, but there are a lot of good young players that if we market better, five of the 5,000 following Tiger might drift over to watch a Brandt Snedeker or someone [like him], and they're exciting to watch."

Goydos is convinced that when Woods recovers from his knee surgery, he might also start doing a bit of recruiting himself to persuade more players to spend this holiday week in the Washington area.

"Jack [Nicklaus] asks you if you're going to come play in his event [the Memorial] and Arnold [Palmer] asks if you're going to play in his event [at Bay Hill] and Tiger will start doing similar things," Goydos said. "He just has had other things going. Tiger has done a lot for this tour the last 11 years, and I think if Tiger asks you to come help him out, you're going to come help him out. If you don't, you're a nut."