Welcome to the wide open Open

Once upon a time there was no Tiger Woods in the Open Championship.

It was an age when newspapers, fans and bookmakers used to speculate widely and sometimes wildly about what might happen. Who was hot and who was not.

Was it going to be Nick Faldo again? Could Greg Norman get the better of him? Might Seve Ballesteros have one more major in him? Etcetera, etcetera.

Woods changed all that.

For years the world and his wife has known who the best player is and who therefore should win.

It did not mean he would - played 11, won three is his Open record as a professional - but previewing the event became predictable, repetitive. Boring even.

After the way he won the US Open at Torrey Pines, his 14th major, it was going to be the same for Royal Birkdale.

But, hopefully for one year only, we are back to no Woods in the Open.

As he recovers from more knee surgery and two stress fractures in his leg - just how did he beat everybody in San Diego? - he will be missed. Greatly missed.

But at least there will be no need for spectators to rise at the crack of dawn on the practice days in the hope of getting a glimpse of him.

And once the first shot is hit on July 17 the best of the rest will be focusing on who is there rather than who is not.

At the end of it one of them will have a major to his name. Welcome then to the wide open Open and, as Colin Montgomerie says: "It will be very interesting."

Taking Woods out of it the last 17 championships could have had 17 different winners, with 17 more names on the list of runners-up.

Simply by looking at the world rankings you can gauge how up for grabs the hugely-coveted title is going to be.

Phil Mickelson has played 15 times and has had just one top-10 finish - third behind Todd Hamilton (remember him?) and Ernie Els at Royal Troon in 2004.

Aged 38 it is still not too late for him, of course, and it would mean an awful lot.

Mickelson thinks back to his childhood and recalls: "I loved watching it on television. Saturday morning cartoons got replaced by the Open."

"The great thing is that it shows that a player who's won it has a game that can be tested by elements and by different shots and by hitting shots along the ground as well as in the air."

"It's amazing how the wind might be the same speed as in Phoenix, Arizona, but how much the ball gets affected by it."

"The biggest thing for me was off the tee. I really struggled in the past, but I've been working on these low drivers that have been able to keep it in play and not have the wind blow it way off line."

"It's taken time for me to appreciate and learn how to hit shots that are manageable in those conditions. At Troon I played along the ground a lot that week."

"Missing out on the play-off by a shot was a big point for me because I finally had a good performance to where I felt I could win and was inches away from doing it."

Australians Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy, who have reached third and fourth in the world this season, also have just one top 10 each to their name, as does Stewart Cink, sixth in the rankings after his recent US Tour win.

Eighth is Scott's best in eight attempts, fifth for Ogilvy in five (nine if you count the occasions he failed to qualify) and last year's sixth place was Cink's only decent effort in 10 trips. Not exactly overwhelming evidence that this is their time.

Hence the betting that shows Els, Sergio Garcia and defending champion Padraig Harrington the front-runners, with the likes of Lee Westwood and Justin Rose - what memories he will have going back to the course - not far behind.

Els won in 2002 and has been a runner-up not only to Hamilton, but also Tom Lehman in 1996 and Woods at St Andrews in 2000. He has also finished third and fourth the last two years.

Garcia, of course, was four ahead early on the final day last year, but a bogey on the last put him into a play-off with Harrington and he lost it.

That was his 13th top 10 in the majors without a win, but the last three Opens have now seen him come fifth, fifth and second and only once in the last seven has he not been in the top 10.

Add to that the confidence the 28-year-old Spaniard took from winning the Players Championship in Florida in May and he will really be fancying his chances with no Woods to worry about.

Harrington, however, is hungry for a repeat success, while Rose, a world top 10 player this time as opposed to a raw 17-year-old amateur when he finished a staggering joint fourth last time, will hope it is written in the stars that Birkdale is the place for him.

With so many players - and so many of them European, of course - the ingredients are there for a thrilling race for the Claret Jug.

Nobody will forget that Woods is not taking part, but nobody will mind if it means an unforgettable battle as a result.

Who is going to win? No Woods, no idea.