BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Too bad the PGA Tour doesn't publish a disabled list.
Tiger Woods is out for the rest of the year after surgery on his left knee. Adam Scott is still trying to recover from a broken pinky on his right hand that limited him at Torrey Pines. Vijay Singh injured his ribs in Europe a month ago and has gone to Hawaii for some rest before the British Open. Former Masters champion Zach Johnson is nursing a sore elbow.
The result is what appears to be a mediocre field in the AT&T National.
PGA Tour events that Woods typically doesn't play often get criticized for being meaningless, so it's no small coincidence that it would happen at his own tournament.
Defending champion K.J. Choi and runner-up Steve Stricker are the only two players from the top 10 in the world ranking. There are only five of the top 20, adding Jim Furyk, Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Anthony Kim.
"A good field, very deep," Woods said in a conference call earlier this week.
The second edition of the AT&T National begins Thursday on a Blue Course at Congressional that players have raved about this week, a change from complaints of bumpy putting surfaces a year ago.
But is it a good field? A deep one?
Using the FedEx Cup standings that only measures this year's performance, there are 10 of the top 20 players, which adds tour winners such as Ryuji Imada, J.B. Holmes and D.J. Trahan.
None of this matters to Paul Goydos, who missed the tournament last year and claimed one similarity with Woods.
"He's played half of them, as many as I have," Goydos said.
Goydos blamed the media, and he was half-serious.
"The media is trying to decide what's a good field and what's a bad field, and I don't think they are very good at deciding that," he said Wednesday. "I think we have these arbitrary rankings, and those are very good at identifying the best couple of players, and maybe the next 10. But are they good at identifying the next 90? In my opinion, no.
"Tour (qualifying) school has got a great field. It's just we had never heard of Anthony Kim. The reality is there are not any bad fields. It's just a field that hasn't been known as strong yet."
