WE HAVEN'T even started yet and, as Alice herself might have put it, it just gets "curiouser and curiouser". With no world number one around, and a defending champion with serious questions about his fitness, this 137th British Open championship at Royal Birkdale has the potential to evolve into a tale of the unexpected.

What will it be like when the wind whips across the sandhills, as it is forecast to do, and players are asked to use creative minds to find answers to the tough questions posed by a links stretched and tweaked since it last played host to the big show in 1998? So, there is no Tiger - at home recuperating from his knee surgery - in the field; and, straight away, that makes this the most open of British Opens in many a long year.

For sure, Sergio Garcia, a supreme ball-striker on a course that demands such a quality, is the deserved favourite and especially so in a market where the other leading lights have doubts about their form or fitness or fortitude.

And, yet, there are also doubts about Garcia. Sure, he will have learnt from Carnoustie a year ago; and that experience of defeat should actually be of benefit in his quest for redemption.

For another thing, nobody in the field will use Woods's absence as motivation as much as the Spaniard, a player obsessed with the desire to win a major title and rid himself of the "best-player-not-to-have-won-a-major" tag. And yet . . .

The lingering doubt remains about Garcia's ability to finish the job when it matters most.

Garcia has played in the final pairing on Sunday on each of the last two years. At Hoylake, he was blown out of the water by Woods. Last year, at Carnoustie, it came down to a missed putt on the 72nd green - half an inch to the right and he would have been champion - and, then, a play-off defeat over four holes to Harrington.

Now, without Woods, Garcia - not Phil or Ernie or Vijay or Adam - is the man expected to deliver. It will be easier said than done, as Garcia acknowledged: "When you don't have the number-one player in the world playing, obviously it gives you a better chance. But it doesn't mean it is yours to win. It's not going to be easy to win this championship . . . I'm just going out to perform the way I know how to and hopefully that will be enough."

If Garcia is to come up short, who then? Well, certainly, Graeme McDowell's recent form - and his background in growing up at Portrush and learning the nuances of links golf - should stand to him. The Ulsterman, who won the Scottish Open on Sunday, has played well in this championship in the past and is playing the best golf of his life. Why not?

Nobody has ever won at Loch Lomond and followed up with a win at the British Open. McDowell doesn't believe it is beyond him.

"It's certainly possible. Out of all the four majors, this is probably the one I feel I've got the game to win. Links golf has always been in my blood. I'm a pretty good wind player. My short game comes flooding back to me, the bumps-and-runs . . . you hit good shots here, you get rewarded.

"The place is not tricked up in any shape or form. It is just a solid, tough test. Fair."

McDowell, up to 29th in the world, is one of four Irishmenin the field. Pádraig Harrington's preparations have been curtailed by that wrist injury, but Damian McGrane - winner of the China Open earlier this season - and Philip Walton, who came through final qualifying to make it to his first British Open in a decade, have prepared diligently.

This course has produced some great champions, and some curious ones. The strangest aspect, though, is that no European has won any of the eight previous Opens here. Isn't it time for that to change? Or could it be that, in Woods's absence, another American - a Stewart Cink who putts so well or a Boo Weekley who flies the ball low - can come up trumps?

Or could an Australian familiar with the sandbelt courses and their likeness to this terrain emerge triumphant? Questions, questions! Geoff Ogilvy, one of the most cerebral players on tour, believes Woods's absence will not detract in any way from whoever finds the answers.

"I just hope they've taught the engraver how to put an asterisk on the trophy, then everyone will know what the tournament was all about . . . No, if any tournament can stand up strong when he is not around, it is this one and the US Open and the Masters and the (US) PGA. I mean, the events are bigger than any one guy. Tiger obviously adds to any tournament, but The Open is The Open."

It is also the most open of British Opens for years. Maybe it is time for Garcia to stand up and take the bull by the horns after all. Maybe.