Golfers can get an early jump on Tiger Woods

The PGA Tour resumes today with the same asterisk that was appended to its tournaments after June 15, 2008: *Tiger Woods is on the sidelines.

Here’s a look at the tour as golfers scramble to establish themselves before the No. 1 golfer in the world gets his legs back under him and is playing the kind of golf that he did at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines:

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This week

Players such as Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas and Vijay Singh are teeing it up, but the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Kapalua, Hawaii, doesn’t have the prestige that the winners-only event once had. Who’s missing? Aside from Woods, who hasn’t played in the event since 2005, the other top three players in the world -- Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington -- are taking a pass. Singh, last year’s top money winner and the FedEx Cup champion, will be there, but don’t look for him again for the rest of the West Coast swing. Singh will have knee surgery for torn cartilage and miss about five weeks.

Quick question, what do these players in the Mercedes field have in common: Will MacKenzie, Dustin Johnson, Marc Turnesa, Cameron Beckman, Ryan Palmer and Davis Love III? They all failed to win during the tour’s regular season in 2008 but won during the Fall Series after the Tour Championship to get into the field at Kapalua, where last place is still worth more than $100,000.

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Where’s Tiger?

Woods began hitting balls in December, which was earlier than expected after his reconstructive knee surgery in June, and said in late December that the knee felt better than ever. Still, no one knows when he’ll return, though it seems safe to assume he will play competitively before the Masters in April, perhaps at the World Golf Championships at Doral in mid-March or two weeks later at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, both in his home state of Florida. Expect this: When he returns, he’ll be ready to compete . . . and win.

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West Coast swing

A look at the eight tournaments that open the season:

Today-Sunday: Mercedes-Benz Championship, Kapalua, Hawaii. Defending champion: Daniel Chopra. Fabulous start for Chopra, who won $1.1 million, then failed to record a top-10 finish the rest of the year, missing 12 of 26 cuts.

Jan. 15-18: Sony Open, Waialae, Hawaii. Defending champion: K.J. Choi. Michelle Wie, who has played in this event four times, will sit it out for the second straight year while getting ready to play on the LPGA tour.

Jan. 21-25: Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, La Quinta/Palm Desert. Defending champion: D.J. Trahan. George Lopez is out, five-time Hope winner Arnold Palmer is in as host of the tour’s premier birdie-fest.

Jan. 29-Feb. 1: FBR Open, Scottsdale, Ariz.: Defending champion: J.B. Holmes. Holmes’ long-ball style is just the kind of swing-from-the-heels game the wildest crowd on the tour loves. He has won the tournament twice.

Feb. 5-8: Buick Invitational, Torrey Pines. Defending champion: Woods. Finally, someone else gets a chance to win at Torrey.

Feb. 12-15: AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Pebble Beach. Defending champion: Steve Lowery. Word last year was that Bill Murray was no longer going to play; now he’s apparently back in.

Feb. 19-22: Northern Trust Open, Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades. Defending champion: Mickelson. He had skipped L.A. for five years before losing to Charles Howell III in a playoff in 2007, then winning last year.

Feb. 25-March 1: Accenture Match Play Championship, Marana, Arizona. Defending champion: Woods. Woods played in two West Coast swing events last year and won them both.

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The Majors

April 9-12: Masters, Augusta, Ga. Defending champion: Trevor Immelman. Harrington will be going for his third major title in a row.

June 18-21: U.S. Open, Farmingdale, N.Y. Defending champion: Woods. Who in 2002, won the last time the Open was at Bethpage Black? You guessed it.

July 16-19: British Open, Turnberry, Scotland. Defending champion: Harrington. At 53, Greg Norman had a lead with nine holes to play before Harrington’s shot-making took over.

Aug. 13-16: PGA Championship, Chaska, Minn. Defending champion: Harrington. Harrington’s strong finish in the majors made him almost everyone’s player of the year in 2008.

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The young challengers

Kim and Villegas won two tournaments each last year, though neither won with Woods in the field. Many believe Kim has the attitude -- and game -- that can stand up under the pressure of a tournament with Woods among the leaders. Villegas, a star in waiting in his first two full years on tour, finally broke through in a big way during the FedEx Cup playoffs, with victories in the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. Sergio Garcia, 29, remains the best player never to have won a major. He finished tied for the second in the PGA and has had top-five finishes in three of the last four British Opens, but it still remains to be seen whether he can close out a major event.

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mike.james@latimes.com