It could be another first at last major

TULSA, Okla. -- Number crunchers, take note. The last year in which all four of the major titles were won by first-timers wasn’t that long ago, in 2003, when Mike Weir, Jim Furyk, Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel broke through.

And now, Zach Johnson, Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington have done their part to remind us that the past may be catching up to us again, not to mention Tiger Woods, who blew away the field Sunday to win the Bridgestone Invitational by eight shots. Even in this classroom full of first-time majors winners, there may be no one as old-school as Woods, and if he’s playing just as well at this week’s PGA Championship, then it’s back-to-school time already.

If it is indeed a first-timer trend, then there’s really no shortage of candidates who could make their breakthrough. The list is long, not to mention entirely subjective, but it probably would be wise to give consideration to Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, Sergio Garcia, Anthony Kim, Luke Donald, Paul Casey and even Rory Sabbatini, if he’s had enough time to erase Tiger’s tire tracks from his backside.

It might be a complicated week. If professional golf and its major championships are calculated on Tiger Time and run according to his calendar, then what do 1998, 2003 and 2004 have in common?

They’re the only years he failed to win at least one major, and it’s a list that could get longer this week at Southern Hills Country Club, where Woods has one final opportunity to avoid being shut out in 2007.

There can be only a few who figured such a turn of events had even a remote chance.

Here’s another longshot that’s coming true: Phil Mickelson isn’t going to win one, either, unless he can figure something out in a hurry.

The fact that the Woods-Mickelson power-hitting machine (and feel free to add Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Furyk and Retief Goosen to the mix) could wind up in this predicament isn’t the picture that most were seeing when the year began, and that’s what will probably make this week’s showdown even more intriguing.

Woods has 12 major titles and had momentum when the year began, having won four of the last eight majors played.

But he tied for second at the Masters and the U.S. Open and tied for 12th at the British Open.

Compared with Woods in the majors department, Mickelson was slightly cooler, with three victories in his previous 12 majors. But at least he was consistent, with one major triumph in each of the last three years.

Woods knows that there’s only one chance for him to change his fortunes, and it’s coming up soon on the tree-lined fairways, rolling hills and gentle doglegs at Southern Hills.

“You never want to be shut out,” he said at the Bridgestone at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. “You never want to have a year where you don’t win a major championship. This year, I’ve come close in two, and it just didn’t happen. I’ve been in this situation before.”

Mickelson played 43 majors as a pro before he won his first, at the 2004 Masters, and then had three of the next nine. Troubled by a sore wrist, Mickelson missed the cut at the U.S. Open and at the British Open. He tied for 24th at the Masters.

So far, if there’s any consistent factor in how the majors have played out, it’s that first-time major champions have overshadowed the top-ranked players.

At Augusta National, it was Johnson, a baby-faced Iowan who hits irons like Jose Maria Olazabal in his prime. Johnson had not covered himself in great expectations before, although he clearly was regarded as an up-and-coming player. But in the 11 majors he played before this year’s Masters, Johnson had missed the cut in seven of them.

Johnson rose from 54th to 15th in the rankings after the Masters.

Cabrera’s turn came at steamy Oakmont in Pennsylvania, not usually regarded as a long-hitters’ paradise, but nevertheless a comfortable venue for the burly Argentine. Cabrera had four top-10 finishes in 30 majors before the U.S. Open and two of them were last year when he tied for eighth at the Masters and was seventh at the British Open.

When he won at Oakmont, Cabrera moved from 28th to 17th in the rankings.

Harrington was already in a different league from Johnson and Cabrera before the year, the league made up of those known as Best Player Never to Have Won a Major. Harrington improved his ranking from eighth to sixth after winning the British Open at Carnoustie.

There hasn’t been a major played at Southern Hills since the 2001 U.S. Open -- won by Goosen -- when Woods arrived with the so-called Tiger Slam in his pocket, a stretch of four consecutive major titles. But he wasn’t a factor and tied for 12th.

This year, Woods became a father the day after the U.S. Open. He has dismissed the notion that the pregnancy of wife Elin and birth of daughter Sam, along with the extended family obligations, hindered his golf in majors. “They have been saying that a lot,” Woods said. “It’s always something.”

Cink is not going to attract much attention, but he should. In the 2001 U.S. Open, he was one shot out of the Goosen-Mark Brooks playoff that Goosen won easily. Hitting it straight and the ability to handle the putting surfaces at Southern Hills are qualities that Cink possesses.

But in the dark-horse derby, Cink is not alone. Mahan has already won this year and Kim has shown that he’s entirely capable, which probably will come in handy, because the PGA Championship is known as the official coming-out party for first-time major champions (think Jeff Sluman in 1988, Steve Elkington in 1995, Brooks in 1996, Davis Love III in 1997, David Toms in 2001, Rich Beem in 2002 and Micheel in 2003).

Look at it this way. Although first-timers are welcome at the PGA Championship, the last three champions are Singh, Mickelson and Woods, who are all multiple major winners.

Of course, those are only numbers, and the ones Woods and Mickelson are considering are a lot smaller. They’re down to one, the last major of the year.

thomas.bonk@latimes.com