With Tiger out, Garcia is British Open favorite

For the first time since the 1996 PGA Championship, Tiger Woods is not competing in one of golf's major championships.

The obligatory bet of choosing Woods or another player in the field has been tabled at least until next year's Masters.

This week's British Open at Royal Birkdale actually should have been the second straight missed major for Woods.

Instead, he stubbornly ignored doctor's orders and opted to win the U.S. Open in a playoff at Torrey Pines South, going 91 holes despite a torn ligament in his left knee and a double stress fracture of the left tibia.

No telling how many strokes Woods would have won by had he actually been able to take a normal swing and walk without a limp.

So with the Tiger away, which mice will play?

Here's a look at some candidates. With Woods out, we'll also include the odds, compliments of sportsbook.com.

By the way, the field odds are at 7-2, which is considerably lower than when Woods is around:

-- Padraig Harrington (15-1): In Tiger and Paddy, Open has a chance to have back-to-back winners back-to-back, though Harrington is bothered by a sore wrist.

-- Sergio Garcia (8-1): The odds-on favorite with no Tiger. Had better take advantage of this rare opportunity.

-- Justin Leonard (40-1): Keep an eye on this guy. The 1997 Open champ could be ready to win his second title.

-- Adam Scott (25-1): Still waiting for his big breakthrough at a major. Has he become Sergio Garcia Lite?

-- Justin Rose (20-1): Turned professional after holing out on his final shot of the 1998 Open at Birkdale.

-- Phil Mickelson (12-1): If his short game is a mess, and apparently it is, what chance does he have?

-- Retief Goosen (20-1): Whenever Tiger does come back from his injury, this will be a marked man.

-- Lee Westwood (15-1): Caught our attention at the U.S. Open. He looked good, and so did his game.

-- Robert Karlsson (30-1): An imposing 6-5 figure had a big presence at U.S. Open (tie for fourth) and Masters (tie for eighth).

-- Andres Romero (40-1): Terrific bet with long odds. Had an astounding 10 birdies in final round last year.

-- Angel Cabrera (60-1): Time to stop celebrating the 2007 U.S. Open win and start playing good golf again.

-- Ernie Els (12-1): Has a remarkable eight top-5 finishes at the Open. Last major title was 2002 Open.

-- Vijay Singh (25-1): Has two top fives at British since 2003.

-- Anthony Kim (20-1): Will he join others with Oklahoma ties to excel at the Open, a la Todd Hamilton and Brian Watts?

-- Scott Verplank (100-1): Good showing could go long way to being a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup team.

-- Hunter Mahan (45-1): After missing three straight cuts, has three straight top 20s. Game is coming around.

-- Charles Howell III (100-1): OK, Chuck. Time to starting hitting some greens and finding your game again.

-- Todd Hamilton (NA): No odds were found for the 2004 British Open champ, a sign of blatant disrespect.

-- Miguel Angel Jimenez (50-1): This guy is bound to win a major. Coming off tie for third at Scottish Open.

-- Geoff Ogilvy (25-1): His game is just too good for the 2006 U.S. Open winner to not win another major.

-- Henrik Stenson (40-1): As the world's No. 17-ranked player, has to win a biggie soon to justify rating.

-- Camilo Villegas (100-1): The PGA Tour's Anna Kournikova. All that hype and has yet to win a tour event.

-- Ian Poulter (60-1): Having the Open Championship as his stage, the big question has to be what will he wear?

-- Jim Furyk (20-1): For such a major player, he certainly hasn't played well at this year's major championships.

-- Steve Stricker (50-1): He's sure an easy guy to like, but he's missed five cuts in his last eight tour starts.

-- KJ Choi (60-1): Remember when we used to think about him at majors? Whatever happened to that?

-- Carl Pettersson (100-1): With four top-10 finishes this year, Pettersson could be a serious contender.

-- Colin Montgomerie (60-1): Has fallen to No. 80 in the world rankings. Still looking for first major title.

-- John Daly (100-1): Good news-bad news: As a former Open champion, he's exempt to play here until 65.

-- Paul Casey (40-1): Surprisingly, he hasn't threatened at many of the majors with nine missed cuts, 1 WD in 22 starts.

-- Aaron Baddeley (60-1): If he doesn't start playing well soon, his last name will take on a different meaning.

-- Robert Allenby (50-1) and Stuart Appleby (50-1): No coincidence these two Aussies have the same odds.

-- Stewart Cink (35-1): Still looking for major presence. Highest finish in a British Open came last year with T6.

-- Trevor Immelman (40-1): This year's Masters champion had played in only six tour events since Augusta.

-- Zach Johnson (80-1): Probably not in the right frame of mind with home state of Iowa battling flood problems.

Prediction: 1. Karlsson; 2. Westwood; 3. Jimenez.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)