It will be a different Open without Tiger

Pain knocked Tiger Woods out of the U.S. Open once before. In the second round of his first Open, Woods, a 19-year-old amateur, tried to hit out of the tall grass at Shinnecock Hills. He sprained a ligament in his left wrist and withdrew because it hurt too much.

His father Earl, standing near the rough, told a passerby at the time, "He's not ready." He explained that the young man had not practiced enough because of his final exams at Stanford. "But that's all right," the elder Woods said that day in 1995. "He's a student first."

It still is reasonable to expect Tiger Woods to still be playing in 2018, when the Open is expected to return to Shinnecock Hills (local golf officials are hopeful of hearing an announcement about that this week). But will he still be Woods then? The knee and Achilles injuries that are keeping him out of the Open at Congressional Country Club this week raise the question of just how "all right" Woods is, and how many Opens he has left in him.

To be sure, his absence at the club outside Washington D.C. will affect the Open, especially the television ratings. "You know, it will certainly have somewhat of an impact on the casual fan. There is no way of getting around that," said Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open champion who will work the tournament for ESPN. "I think the hard core fan and those who like big events in sports, they're certainly going to watch. It's not going to affect them one way or the other."

As for the rest of the population, Strange said, "There is always a buzz when Tiger plays."

Still, the Open will go on. The intriguing issue is what the future holds for Woods. It is anyone's guess what will happen with the troublesome left knee that was operated on seven months before that 1995 Open at Shinnecock. The first totally Woods-less Open since 1994 is an occasion to make golf followers wonder how he will do, now that he is a student again.

While 156 golfers play for America's national championship, Woods will be at home in Florida, still learning how to regain his form without his father, who died in May of 2006; without his wife, who divorced him last year; without either of his first two swing coaches; without his solid putting stroke and without Mark O'Meara, his constant companion during most of Woods' reign as the world's greatest golfer and its most famous athlete.

"This is what he does. It's kind of in his DNA to be a champion golfer," said O'Meara, who now plays on the Champions Tour with fellow 50-and-older golfers, and lives in Houston, half a continent away from Woods. "Now the toll that it takes to be on top, and the desire, the work ethic and certainly the personal issues that have happened in his life, that weighs heavily on any individual and he's probably no exception to it."

O'Meara, who won the Masters and British Open and has won a Champions Tour major, said Woods' impact on his own career was "huge."

"I don't know if I would have won major championships if it wasn't for Tiger. We basically lived together for nine, 10 years. We traveled together, played all our practice rounds together, stayed together at all the major championships. We were like brothers, we truly were," O'Meara said.

He doesn't know Woods' post-scandal state of mind, or the status of his knee. O'Meara simply believes Woods will win again because of the same factors that made him such a big winner to begin with. "I know he's a great competitor and you don't do what he has done without being a great competitor," his friend said. "And I know he wants to get back and win."

Woods said at a news conference recently, "I love practicing, I love preparing and I haven't been able to do that. But the good news is I've done this before. I've gone through injuries before and taken the time to take it step by step."

Meanwhile, the Open will go on. Woods' place will be taken by amateur Michael Whitehead of Rice University, an alternate in sectional qualifying. "It's kind of surreal. I just got a phone call from the USGA asking if I wanted to play the U.S. Open," Whitehead told the Associated Press. "So, thanks Tiger. I guess I'm glad he was listening to his doctors."

It will just seem odd this week for anyone listening for the usual Woods buzz. Then again, as Strange said, "there is always a buzz at the U.S. Open as well."