PGA Championship is up for grabs without Tiger Woods

What’s another major without Tiger Woods? It’s the PGA Championship, and like the British Open last month, it’s an open invitation to take advantage of Woods’ absence and step up to the plate.

That’s what Padraig Harrington did at Royal Birkdale and now it’s somebody else’s turn this week at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

You know who they are. Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Lee Westwood, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim, Ernie Els – the list keeps going.

If Woods were around, of course he’d be the favorite, but in his absence, the players who should otherwise rule the fairways and greens once again have the opportunity to win a major that doesn’t include Woods.

It doesn’t happen very often, so why not take advantage?

The clock isn’t running on Tiger time right now, it’s ticking loud enough for anybody within hearing distance to make a statement. That statement would be this: Since I don’t have to worry/think about Woods, my excuse level is down, my opportunity level is up.

If Harrington answered the challenge at the British Open, many are looking to Mickelson, or Singh, to make a move this week at Oakland Hills.

Last week, Mickelson spent three hours practicing on the front nine at Oakland Hills, which is 400 yards longer than the first time he played it in 2004 at the Ryder Cup.

He may be due. Mickelson’s last major victory was the 2006 Masters and this year, he was fifth at the Masters, tied for 18th at the U.S. Open and tied for 19th at the British Open.

Mickelson tied Goosen for fourth at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, two shots behind Singh. He said his problem was his putting.

“I’m turning 63s and 64s into 70s. I couldn’t get any putts to go in.

“I feel like I’m playing well, I just need to get that final piece of scoring down.”

As for Singh, he putted well enough to win, averaging 28.5 putts a round, tied for 31st. But Singh was fifth in driving distance, averaging 316 yards off the tee, tied for 11th in fairways hit and tied for fifth in greens in regulation, so neither distance nor accuracy were a problem.

Singh’s 32nd PGA Tour victory means he is now tied for 14th on the career victory list with Horton Smith. His 20 victories since turning 40 (Singh is 45) are the most by any player over 40. Sam Snead had 17.

But it was Singh’s first victory this year and he said he is relieved.

“It gives me a lot of confidence … puts me in a really good frame of mind going into [the PGA Championship] and the rest of the season.”

Keep track

Last year, when Woods won his fourth PGA Championship and his 13th major, an estimated 31.8 million watched all or part of CBS’ two-day coverage. The final round earned a 6.2 rating and was the third highest-rated golf telecast of the year.

TV ratings

Saturday’s third round of the WGC Bridgestone Invitational had a 1.5 overnight rating for CBS and Sunday’s fourth round had a 2.1. The women fared worse on ABC, with a 0.7 on Saturday and a 0.6 on Sunday at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Numbers

0 - Three-putts by Mark McNulty over 72 holes at the U.S. Senior Open.

2 - Argentines who have won the U.S. Senior Open (Eduardo Romero on Sunday and Roberto De Vicenzo in 1980).

6 - Champions Tour players with two victories this year (Romero, Scott Hoch, Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson, Denis Watson, Jay Haas).

7 - Parker McLachlin’s shot margin of victory at the Reno-Tahoe Open, second largest this year, behind Tiger Woods’ eight-shot victory at the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

8 to 1 - The odds of Mickelson winning the PGA Championship, as calculated by GolfOdds.

9 - First-time winners on the PGA Tour this year (McLachlin, Brian Gay, Greg Kraft, Andres Romero, Johnson Wagner, Anthony Kim, Ryuji Imada, Richard Johnson, Chez Reavie).

12 under - Cristie Kerr’s total, worth 6th place at the British Open at Sunningdale, the best finish by a U.S. player.

55 - Out of 78 players who made the cut at Sunningdale, how many finished under par.

98 - McLachlin’s place on the money list before Sunday.

53 - McLachlin’s place on the money list after making $540,000 Sunday.

Chatter

McLachlin fired his regular caddie, struck up a friendship and hired Travis Hanson to carry his bag at the Reno-Tahoe Open, where Hanson earned 10% of McLachlin’s winnings, or $54,000: “He may need to rethink his commercial real estate job and come on the road with me.”

Annika Sorenstam, who finished with a birdie at the Women’s British Open, the final major of her career, and read a scoreboard message that she would be missed: “All of a sudden, everything just reflects on your mind, and you’re just grateful.”

Eduardo Romero hung on to win the U.S. Senior Open, but admitted he played worse than he did in the third round: “Yesterday, I played like Tiger-good, and today I played Tiger-not good, especially the back nine.”

Lee Westwood said Singh’s belly putter style is only one of many Singh has used: “How many methods has he tried? He’s done all but grip it between his teeth. There’s nothing wrong with that. You have to find something that works.”

Lorena Ochoa tied for seventh at Sunningdale and finished the year with one major title, the first one, at the Kraft Nabisco: “You cannot win all of them.”

Ryder Cupdate

The PGA Championship is the last chance to earn points to finish with a total in the top eight and earn a guaranteed place on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, so here are the top eight: Stewart Cink, Mickelson, Kenny Perry, Furyk, Kim, Justin Leonard, Boo Weekley and Steve Stricker.

The next four in the point totals are Woody Austin, Hunter Mahan, D. J. Trahan and Rocco Mediate.

By the way, Woods hasn’t played in seven weeks and holds about a 6,000-point lead over Cink, whose margin over second-place Mickelson is about 70 points. Woods won’t play because of his knee surgery.

U.S. captain Paul Azinger will choose the last four players Sept. 2.

Money news

Always looking for a way to make money (and who isn’t?), the LPGA has come up with an idea for an eight-tournament series it wants to get on network television in 2010 – at an umbrella sponsorship cost of $4 million, according to SportsBusiness Journal.

The LPGA is marketing the arrangement to networks as a time buy, meaning after time and production costs of around $1.7 million, each of the event events would contribute about $1.2 million and $500,000 from the umbrella sponsor, SportsBusiness Journal reported.

 thomas.bonk@latimes.com