Date might have cost Woods stronger field

Tiger Woods is 33 and already has more PGA Tour victories than Arnold Palmer. One of these days, he might have the kind of influence on players that the King can wield with a mere glint in his eye.

Consider the case of one player, whom every tournament would love to have in its field. He had no intention of playing the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year, for no other reason than he wanted to change up his schedule leading to the Masters Tournament. The young star was at Seminole in early March when he ran into Palmer, who greeted him with a smile, a firm handshake and a question.

"Are you coming to my tournament?" Palmer asked him.

Strangely enough, his plans changed that moment.

As far as anyone can tell, Woods never had that kind of moment with any of the big names who were somewhere other than his AT&T National last week. Only four of the top 12 players showed up at Congressional.

"I've never asked anybody to play," he said. "I don't ... I feel awkward doing that. If the guys can find time in their schedule to play, we'd love to have them."

Congressional managed just fine without them.

The golf course, which will play host to its third U.S. Open in two years, is a classic that rivals any on the PGA Tour.

The tournament honors the military over the Fourth of July holiday outside the nation's capital. Kids not only get in free, one marshal named Ron Fitzsimmons plucked a dozen of them out of the gallery each day and parked them behind the seventh tee so they could see. Proceeds will go toward building another Tiger Woods Learning Center, this one in the Washington area.

In three years, the AT&T National has become a model event.

Along with those trappings, it was quite a show inside the ropes. Woods played in the final pairing with the dynamic defending champion, Anthony Kim. He wound up beating another rising star, Hunter Mahan, who threw down 62 in the final round .

To no one's surprise, the overnight TV rating was up 200 percent from last year.

"You've got Tiger and Anthony Kim in the last group," Fred Couples said. "Does it really matter who's not here?"

Even so, it was clear Couples was perturbed by the no-shows, and he wasn't alone. There was plenty of grumbling going on outside the Beltway .

More than 100 players earned more than $1 million last year, and most of them owe that to Woods. Was it too much to return the favor by playing his event?

Four PGA Tour events that Woods missed this year had a higher-rated field than he attracted to the AT&T National, yet there was a story every week, in Los Angeles and Houston, in Fort Worth and Phoenix, about why Woods wasn't there.

The AT&T National has everything a player could want, much like Quail Hollow and the Memorial.

So why don't more top players show up?

A strong field starts with a great course and a good spot on the schedule. What once appeared to be a great date - a week involving the Fourth of July - is starting to look suspect.

Don't be surprised to see the AT&T National move to May if a spot in the schedule opens up in 2012, if not sooner.