Who will be thanking Tiger Woods for not being here this week? Three Sundays ago, it was Sergio Garcia who showed his gratitude after the world no. 1 scratched from the Players Championship in Florida. And with Woods still not fully recovered from his April 15 knee surgery, and not scheduled to appear until the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in two weeks’ time, the door is open again at the Memorial this weekend.

Of course, even though his play in the early part of the season possibly surpassed even his own high expectations, it was no foregone conclusion Woods would have won at Sawgrass. He has won only once there, after all. And though he is the Memorial’s sole three-time champion, he hasn’t won Jack Nicklaus’s tournament since 2001. Last year, he finished eight shots behind K.J. Choi who won his hero’s event with a superb closing round of 65.

Choi would be a sound pick for the 33rd Memorial, too, were it not for the fact his form since winning the Sony Open in Hawaii in January has been patchy at best. Actually, in the last few weeks, it has positively stunk. He did manage a couple of top 10 finishes in February but finished way down the field at the Masters at 10 over par. The Korean, currently ranked eighth in the world, missed the weekend at the Players by an alarming 10 strokes and fared only slightly better at Colonial last week when he hit one shot too many.

The obvious choice at Muirfield Village is Phil Mickelson, who last Sunday turned another horrid slice off the 72nd tee into just another opportunity to showcase his exceptional skills. Two years ago, Mickelson lost the U.S. Open after failing to recover from a wicked banana ball that hit a corporate tent 30 yards to the left of the fairway. This time he had a gap wedge for his approach shot rather than the foolish 3-iron he attempted at Winged Foot, and the green at which he was aiming was nowhere near as firm. Nor was it surrounded by tall, clingy rough. But there’s no denying the shot he pulled off to win his 34th PGA Tour event (13th on the all-time list) was pure magic. Despite the pained expression, one almost got the feeling the poor drive was intentional as it set him up for the type of finish Mickelson obviously loves so well.

He’s supposed to have put all the flashy stuff behind him, of course, and risen to a whole new level of caution, discretion, and plain good sense. But he took the 6-iron out of his bag for the first two rounds and his 3-wood for the weekend to make way for a fifth wedge. Clearly, the plan at Colonial was not to caress his way around, hitting dainty long irons into position, but to overwhelm its 7,054 yards with a belligerent show of force. Indeed, he hit only 57% of the fairways but found his ball 317 yards up the hole on average, with most of the hazards far behind. And the thrill-seeker in him wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity at the last chance of flying his ball under one branch, over another, and dropping it just a few feet right of the pin. The old Phil Mickelson is obviously alive and well and ready to jump into action on the rare (well, slightly less common) occasion the new Butch Harmon-inspired Mickelson goes awry.

The 9-foot putt he holed to secure his one-stroke victory over Tim Clark and Rod Pampling was more or less a certainty after an outstanding putting display over the final 54 holes when he averaged just 26.7 putts a round. With his prototype blade-style putter, he looked almost as potent on the greens as he ever has and with the summer’s major championships looming, Mickelson is looking to add a fourth, maybe a fifth, to his already impressive résumé.

A win here and Mickelson will jump 2,101 points ahead of Woods in the FedEx Cup standings. Such a deficit probably wouldn’t concern Tiger were anyone else out in front. But the sight of Mickelson leapfrogging him will certainly get Tiger’s attention and add much spice to his return. With a best finish of tied for fourth in nine appearances, the Nicklaus-designed course, which opened in 1973 (and hosted its first Memorial three years later), hasn’t done Mickelson many favors in the past, however, and last year he was forced to withdraw after only 11 holes with a wrist injury.

Nicklaus, while acknowledging the 400 or so yards that have been added since the course opened, insists it doesn’t actually play much tougher than it did 10 or 20 years ago. The majority of the field today might not agree, however, as many are saying the rough, especially around the greens, is almost twice as long as it was last year and with green speeds approaching 14 on the stimpmeter, putting has become extremely tricky. Some are even suggesting it will play as difficult as most major championship venues. The fairways are fairly generous, but at 7,336 yards, the player missing them will definitely have a hard time stopping his midiron approach shots on the putting surfaces unless perhaps Saturday’s predicted rain arrives. That will be too late for some, of course, but it could lead to low scoring over the weekend.

Also in the hunt will be Garcia, whose win at Sawgrass has surely done a great deal to assuage the grip of the demons that polluted his mind for so long. His demeanor and bearings this week are in stark contrast to the slouched and crestfallen posture he assumed following last year’s Open Championship playoff defeat to Padraig Harrington when he spoke of being up against “more players than the field.”

The Spaniard’s ball striking has never been in question but with his improved putting stroke, courtesy of short-game guru Stan Utley, there really is no reason why he shouldn’t contend in virtually every tournament he plays.

Garcia’s record at the Memorial is every bit as mediocre as Mickelson’s — a tie for second in 2001 being the only top 10 finish he has recorded in seven tries — but with the security that comes from winning one of the game’s most prestigious tournaments, who knows what Garcia might be capable of now?

tonydear71@comcast.net