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Who is the best golfer playing today?

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Writers from around Tribune Co. attempt to determine who is the best golfer out there today. Check back throughout the day for more responses and weigh in with a comment of your own.

Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times

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The best golfer in the world is resting at home in Florida with ice packs on his bad knee. His 14 major championships are enough said.

Battling for the position of 1-A in Tiger Woods’ absence are Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Steve Stricker. We eliminate McIlroy because he is just a kid and showed that when he whined after the British Open about not liking to play in bad weather. Is he really from San Diego and just didn’t tell us?

It’s not Donald because he can’t hit enough big boomers off the tee. We eliminate Westwood because he always seems to eliminate himself when expectations are high. We eliminate Stricker because best-players-in-the-world win majors.

That brings us to Mickelson, who showed with his run in the British Open that he is mature enough to learn how to play decently on bumps and mud and in monsoons. Little has changed. It’s Tiger and Phil and lots of guys still trying.

[Updated at 11:27 a.m.: George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel

Hello, Tiger. Can you please come home?

There isn’t a true No. 1 golfer in the world; just a bunch of guys with nice potential. And that’s the problem. They play well in spurts, so any pick for No. 1 comes down to an educated guess and a stroke (or two) of luck.

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Here’s how dominant Tiger Woods was in his prime: He held the No. 1 slot for 623 weeks. Now it’s a crapshoot.

Congrats to Darren Clarke for winning the 140th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s over the weekend, but he won’t have any staying power at the top.

My roll of the dice is Rory McIlroy. He won the U.S. Open and would have won the Masters had he not faded on the last day.

That works for me. Fingers crossed.]

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