The game is surviving without Tiger Woods. Since he left the scene following his win at the U.S. Open in June, we have watched compelling finishes at the Open Championship and last week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Anthony Kim’s explosive play has filled much of the gap that Tiger left, and Kenny Perry’s march toward Ryder Cup qualification, not to mention his somewhat curious scheduling choices, have maintained many people’s interest. The only problem, of course, is that picking a winner for the big events is that much harder with no Tiger in the field.

A Tiger victory is never a foregone conclusion, but without him other players’ chances of winning increase dramatically. Any one of 50, 60, even 70 players could conceivably take home the Wanamaker Trophy at Oakland Hills on Sunday. With all due respect, the only players with little chance of winning are the 20 club professionals who qualified to play this week by finishing in the top 20 at the PGA Professional National Championship at Reynolds Plantation, Ga., in June. They’ll tell you otherwise, of course, but they’re really here to make up the numbers.

Here are six players who might not win necessarily, but who are worth keeping an eye on.

Vijay Singh

Besides a top-quality stretch of play between the middle of February and the end of March, during which he recorded four top-five finishes from five starts, the 45-year-old Fijian wasn’t having too sensational a season before last week. But with rounds of 67, 66, 69, and 68, he held off a posse of top players to earn his 32nd PGA Tour victory and his 20th since turning 40. Suddenly the man who was slowly fading from most handicappers’ view after going 34 tournaments without a win is confidently eyeing his fourth major title.

Kenny Perry

What a funny old year it’s been for this 47-year-old Kentuckian. On the positive side, three wins have come his way, and he has almost certainly met his goal for the year of qualifying for the American Ryder Cup team. But because of his decision to skip U.S. Open qualifying and the Open Championship from which he was exempt, he’s also caught a lot of flak. Playing for his country at Valhalla in six week’s time is clearly far more important to Perry than winning a major, but with his spot on the team all but assured he can focus on winning his first major title. And what better time to do it than this coming Sunday, his 48th birthday?

Scott Hebert

The winner of the 41st PGA Professional National Championship, 39-year-old Hebert is a six-time Michigan Open champion and Head Professional at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme, Mich., 250 miles north of Oakland Hills. He has never played the venue for the 90th PGA Championship, but he has some championship experience, having qualified for last year’s event at Southern Hills. He missed the cut there with rounds of 79 and 76, but he will be determined to put on a good show in his home state this week.

J.B. Holmes

U.S. captain Paul Azinger says he is still considering everyone ranked between 9th and 16th in the Ryder Cup standings, but Holmes, currently in 16th place, is a special case, as he has the length that Azinger might find useful at Valhalla. Keen to make the America’s distance advantage count, Holmes’s 350-yard drives will certainly appeal to Azinger, as would a decent finish this week. He has a win this year (at the FBR Open in January), but also six missed cuts. And in seven major championship starts, Holmes has a top finish of T25. He will need a marked improvement on that to convince Azinger he is worth the risk.

Jay Haas

The evergreen Jay Haas arrives at Oakland Hills having already won this year’s Senior PGA Championship. At Oak Hill CC in May, 54-year-old Haas overcame extremely penal rough and rock-hard greens to beat Bernhard Langer by one shot, and Scott Hoch, Joey Sindelar, and Scott Simpson by two. On the Champions Tour this year, he has nine top-10 finishes from 13 events, one of which came at the U.S. Senior Open in Colorado last week. He still has the consistency to do well at Oakland Hills, but he hasn’t finished in the top 10 at a regular major since 2004.

Lee Westwood

It is curious how not one of the two dozen world-class performers Europe has produced over the last two decades has won either the U.S. Open or PGA Championship. Thirty-five-year-old Westwood, currently leading the European Tour’s Order of Merit and a winner of 28 professional tournaments worldwide (including one on the PGA Tour — 1998 Freeport-McDermott Classic), came close to winning this year’s U.S. Open, but he failed to birdie Torrey Pines’ par-5 18th hole on Sunday and wound up one shot out of the Tiger Woods/Rocco Mediate playoff. Last week, he gave Vijay Singh a run for his money at Firestone with a four-round total of 271, nine under par, so he may well be the man most likely to break Europe’s 78-year PGA Championship drought.

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