Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez tied for second at Pebble Beach. He should be. So should Phil Mickelson and David Duval, who couldn't even break par over four rounds on a course where Woods did it three times. So should Davis Love III and Jesper Parnevik, who didn't even make it to the third round. If this U.S. Open was a watershed for Woods, it should serve as a wake-up call for everyone else.
Every sport needs a dominant player.
To have someone like Woods, a worldwide celebrity along the lines of Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, is a bonus. Woods has always downplayed talk of a rivalry, claiming there were too many good players. Perhaps he was merely being polite. Tom Kite compared the drama of Woods destroying the field to when the Texas Longhorns used to dominate the Southwest Conference. It's certainly fun when you're pulling for Texas, but it's not real exciting for everybody else.