Jim McCabe

It has been written and talked about so frequently for years now that it is generally accepted as reality within the framework of the PGA Tour landscape. There are the tournaments that involve Tiger Woods and then there are all the others.

TV executives know that, because their viewers tell them so. And, guess what? The players know it’s true, too.

Young and still relatively new to the PGA Tour stage, Brandt Snedeker talked honestly at the Masters and said what many of his older colleagues truly believe. When asked how he would try to put Tiger Woods out of his mind when he went out and played the final round, Snedeker sort of laughed.

“When I figure out how to do that, I think I’ll be able to charge some guys out here,” he said, at a time when he was two shots behind the leader, Trevor Immelman, but four strokes ahead of Woods. “If he gets off to a great start [in the final round], it’s going to be in everybody’s head. To sit here and say we are not going to be thinking about Tiger Woods is crazy, because we are.

“We’re human. What can I say?”

No reason to elaborate, Brandt. You spoke the truth and in a way that is to be admired. To say that players don’t have one eye on Woods is absurd. Of course they do. When he’s ahead, they know he’s virtually uncatchable. When he’s trailing, they know the dramatic stuff he’s capable of. And when he’s not in the lineup ... well, even he can’t work that sort of magic — and that brings us to the situation as it currently exists.

Woods is sidelined and to a lot of players that should mean one thing: Seize the opportunity.

Let’s face it, when you take out of the equation a guy who has won 64 of his 221 PGA Tour starts as a professional, a whopping 29 percent, you’ve made things exponentially easier for the other competitors. And what a time for it to happen, too, because with The Players Championship this week, and the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and the Memorial Tournament on the horizon, there are three mega events in four weeks, and 21.1 million reasons to jam your schedule.

For marquee names who have consistently been frustrated in their attempts to try and outscore Woods, this is no time to head for money-grabs in Asia or Europe. This is a time to tee it up and establish a little bit of momentum heading into the summer majors.

Slideshow Family time Tiger Woods is blessed both on and off the golf course. NBCSports.com

Adam Scott stepped up to win the EDS Byron Nelson Championship on April 27, and while it wasn’t an event in which Woods would have played, it pushed him from No. 10 to fifth in the world order and surely his colleagues within the top 10 — Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Geoff Ogilvy, K.J. Choi, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, and Justin Rose — would have to admit it’s easier playing golf without casting one eye over your shoulder to see where you-know-who is.

Heck, maybe even No. 18 Sergio Garcia can take advantage of Woods’ absence to rekindle a game that has been a shadow of its former self. No other star has been slapped around by Woods quite like Garcia in recent years, so instead of the therapist’s couch to search for an answer why, perhaps the Spaniard can find solace in the fact he won’t be around.

Golfers don’t think this way? Especially the truly gifted ones? Nonsense. They always have one eye on Woods. He’s that special. He’s that intimidating.

But as he stays away to rest the knee, the playing field changes for the PGA Tour’s best players. It’s like they’re going against the Yankees without Mariano Rivera, the Colts without Peyton Manning, the Lakers without Kobe Bryant.

They’re not guaranteed a victory, but they’ve sure been provided with a different — and far more comfortable — frame of mind.

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