SAN DIEGO -- The headliners were gone, but not forgotten. And we're not just talking about Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.
Woods left the Farmers Insurance Open on Thursday with another injury; Mickelson departed Torrey Pines Friday after missing the cut due to another poor putting round.
That's bad enough. But FedEx Cup champ Billy Horschel exited early, as did Jordan Spieth. So did Justin Rose.
Who's left?
Unfair, perhaps, but that's the reality of professional golf, especially as it relates to the PGA Tour.
Balmy temperatures along the Pacific Ocean made for an excellent spectator experience at Torrey Pines on Saturday, and undoubtedly folks freezing in other parts of the country tuned into the broadcast if for nothing else than the warming scenery.
That will sell much better than a leaderboard that has J.B. Holmes and Harris English at the top, even though both have plenty of game and an interesting back story.
And that is the problem the game faces as it attempts to adapt without Tiger and Phil, a subject that has been of interest for some time, even more topical now. Woods, at 39, can't stay healthy. Mickelson, 44, can't get a putt to drop.
Together they have combined to win 121 PGA Tour titles and 19 major championships. But last year marked the first time since 1992 that neither player won a tournament.
That is a remarkable run, one that spoiled us, and one that won't be easily replaced if, indeed, their time is coming to a close. Both surely will have something to say about that, but for the second straight tournament, neither was around for the weekend. For the second straight year, they are absent from Torrey Pines on Sunday.
And with some of the other big names down the road, the star power on the leaderboard is lacking.
English, Holmes, Lucas Glover -- all nice players. Glover has even won a major, the 2009 U.S. Open. But none moves the needle, the reality in today's golf world where dozens upon dozens of players bring tons of game to the big stage but don't exactly have what it takes to command it.
And unfortunately, that is what golf craves.
In team sports, we cheer for the uniform. The players come and go, whether it is in pro sports or college, and we still stand transfixed. Golf is much different. For whatever reason, the game has rarely embraced the underdog, the unknown. It loves the stars, loves those who dominate.
With Woods and Mickelson possibly out of the picture, who will do that?
Rory McIlroy is the obvious candidate, and he's done more than anyone can ask to fill the void. He's won four of his past 12 tournaments and has had four other runner-up efforts during that period, which dates to the Open Championship. He'll go for the career Grand Slam at the Masters and will undoubtedly capture the attention of fans beyond golf.
It helps that McIlroy is only 25, personable, engaging. He blew a major in horrific fashion, won two by wide margins and has four total, including two in a row.
But the Northern Irishman won't make his U.S. debut for another three weeks at the Honda Classic. He hasn't played in America since the end of September at the Tour Championship.
True golf fans follow his worldwide exploits, but do the casual observers?
And therein lies the rub. The hard-core golf fan cringes at so much Tiger talk, begging for new, fresh stories. And they are there to be sure.
Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, for example. Or Jimmy Walker.
Fowler, for all his popularity and game, has but a single PGA Tour title. Same with Spieth. Watson has two Masters wins but suffers through numerous bouts of inconsistency. Walker, who is a stroke back entering the final round, can win for the second time this year and fifth in 17 months. That rates as dominating today.
Patrick Reed has been a breath of fresh, even if some believe he came off as cocky with his "top 5" comment last year at Doral. But at age 24, he already has four PGA Tour victories and showed some moxie in a losing U.S. effort at the Ryder Cup.
But there is no denying that Woods, even in distress, commands the most attention, and not just from the media. Just because he has been playing poorly, or was ineffective, doesn't mean he attracts any less fanfare in his gallery.
Quite the contrary. The ropes are lined with spectators eager to see him, and some might be doing so for the only time. Although Woods was long gone from Torrey Pines on Saturday, CBS devoted a good chunk of its early broadcast to his plight, and it's easy to understand why: More are interested in his struggles than they are the live golf shots of Chad Campbell and Nick Watney, as good as they might be.
"We went from 600 to 700 people watching us to 50," Horschel said of the situation he and Fowler faced after Woods dropped out of their group on Thursday. "So we became chopped liver. We analyzed where we stand in the game of golf, and had a good joke about it. Just because I won the FedEx Cup, they still don't know who I am."
And that's not for a lack of trying.
Horschel got considerable attention when he captured the past two FedEx Cup playoff events and earned almost $13 million last September. He even gave his caddie at $1 million-plus bonus, a remarkable gesture.
But the reality is it happened during football season, when golf gets less attention and when the casual fan turns elsewhere. And it's tough to stand out among a slew of great players.
That's why to gain traction, you have to win and win often. Tiger and Phil might re-emerge, but common sense says their days of domination are nearing an end. The best thing that could happen is for someone else to come along, anyone, who wins a bunch and makes us take notice.