No clear favorite for the US Open

Associated Press

Four players have taken their turns at No. 1, the highest number between U.S. Opens in the 25-year history of the world ranking. Four players won their first major in the last 12 months. Four others captured their first World Golf Championship.

And it’s largely because of a guy who’s not even playing.

The presence Tiger Woods brings to golf is felt even more strongly in his absence.

Woods will not be at Congressional, missing the U.S. Open for the first time in 17 years because of lingering injuries to his left leg. Some could argue he has been missing for the last year as he has tried to mend his personal life, his health and his golf swing. He has gone 18 months without winning, paving the way for a new generation of stars to emerge.

Graeme McDowell started off by winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and he peeled back a massive layer of Woods’ mystique at the end of the year by overcoming a four-shot deficit in the final round and beating him in a playoff at the Chevron World Challenge.

Louis Oosthuizen (British Open), Martin Kaymer (PGA Championship) and Charl Schwartzel (Masters) — all of them in their 20s — won the next three majors. Lee Westwood ended Woods’ five-year stay atop the world ranking, and Kaymer and Luke Donald since have gone to No. 1 in the world over the last four months.

With the absence of Woods — and to a lesser extent, Phil Mickelson, who has only one win in the last year — the new landscape in golf features parity not seen in some 20 years. When the 111th edition of the U.S. Open begins Thursday outside the nation’s capital in Bethesda, Md., no one will stand out as a clear favorite.

“Tiger has been the dominant player in this generation, really since the mid-90s,” Stewart Cink said. “Eventually, he won’t be anymore. Maybe that’s already happening — we don’t know. He won so many tournaments, maybe there were just less available to win.”

Ten players have won the last 10 majors. Even if Woods were around, this U.S. Open lives up to its name — open.

“Anybody can win,” Davis Love III said.