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Woods was there, making birdie on three of his last four holes to miss the playoff by one shot.
The question now is what will it be like without him.
"Tiger would be the first to agree that the Open is bigger than any one player, and I'm sure we can look forward to another memorable week at Birkdale," Royal & Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson said. "Funny enough, I sense some excitement. It's sad that he won't be there. But now I think people wonder who's it going to be?"
At the moment, all anyone knows is who it won't be.
Woods was a 5-to-2 favorite by one British bookmaker after he won the U.S. Open for his ninth victory in his last 12 starts. After he announced he would be out the rest of the season, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia were installed as co-favorites at 12-to-1.
Those are the players who have the most to gain by Woods' absence, for no other reason than having lost to Woods so often.
"Any of the top-10 players have got some scar tissue from Tiger," Rod Pampling said. "And they'll feel a bit of relief that he's not there. Look, you still have to post the lowest score. But for sure, they'll be more confident than they normally are. Tiger not being there has got to be a small relief."
No one has finished runner-up to Woods more often than Els - seven times, including a combined 23 shots in consecutive majors. It was at St. Andrews in 2000 when Els matched his lowest score ever in a British Open (66), and one of the first questions for the Big Easy was what he thought about Woods being one shot behind.
"Should I talk about Tiger again?" Els said that day, clearly exasperated. "Come on, guys. I just shot 66."
Garcia has played with Woods in the final group of a major twice - he wound up six shots behind in the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in 2002, and seven shots behind at Royal Liverpool two years ago in the British Open.
The 28-year-old Spaniard had his closest call in a major last year at Carnoustie, losing to Padraig Harrington in a playoff. When Garcia won The Players Championship in May, he jokingly thanked Woods for not being at Sawgrass. Even so, he doesn't expect this British Open to be much different from the others.
"I don't think there's going to be less people there," he said. "Before Tiger was playing, the Open was still great. Obviously, there's going to be something missing a little bit. But the Open is still the Open. And it's bigger than anybody else."
Mathematically, however, the odds have never been better.
Woods has won 30 percent of the majors as a pro, a statistic that led Montgomerie to say it is tougher than ever to win a major in his era. But that's not to suggest it becomes easier without him.
It wasn't any easier for Woods when he finished two shots behind Ben Curtis in 2003, or in 1998 when he couldn't catch his 41-year-old neighbor the last time the British Open was at Royal Birkdale.
There is no need for an asterisk.
"The aspects of professional golf are a number of different things, and one of them is that you're healthy," Paul Goydos said. "So when you start hearing somebody write about maybe these next two majors need an asterisk, well, then we need to put an asterisk next to all 18 of Jack's. Because Tiger didn't play in any of those."
