ESPN Golf

The Weekly 18 will put its reputation on the line with this guarantee: Tiger Woods will absolutely, positively not win this week's PGA Tour event.

That's because he's skipping the Canadian Open.

Woods' absence leaves the door open for, well, everybody else. But just in case you're sick of the same ol', same ol', let's examine the top current players who have yet to win on tour. It's a list that the likes of J.J. Henry and Dean Wilson have gladly excused themselves from in recent months.

We'll keep it exclusive to PGA Tour members, so you won't find European Tour stalwarts Colin Montgomerie and Henrik Stenson, minor league standouts Johnson Wagner and Tripp Isenhour, or up-and-coming youngsters Anthony Kim and Richie Ramsay.

And with that, the Weekly 18 presents the best players without a win, because Tiger simply can't win every week.

	Clark

Dutiful readers of this column know how much the Weekly 18 thinks of Clark's game -- and with good reason. He's a premier ball striker and one of the world's top putters, brandishing that oversized broom handle with aplomb. The 30-year-old South African owns three career European Tour victories, two more on the Nationwide Tour and even won this year's unofficial CVS Charity Classic (with Nick Price).
Best bet: He is more apt to contend when the winning score is closer to par, so don't be surprised if his initial victory comes in a major or WGC event.

	Van Pelt

Ask his peers and many will say that of the guys to work their way up through the PGA Tour's minor leagues and compete solely in the U.S., Van Pelt is the most talented without a victory. He owns 14 top-10 results since 2004. Expect a win sooner rather than later.
Best bet: A long venue that rewards accuracy. His top finishes have come at the Memorial and Chrysler Championship.

	Howell

How does a player soar to within the top 10 on the World Ranking without ever earning a PGA Tour victory? By doing most of his damage on the European Tour. Howell is splitting time between the tours this season, though he's finding more success on the other side of the pond. He leads the Order of Merit ranking (the Euro Tour's money list), but hasn't finished better than T-12 in 10 stroke-play events on U.S. soil this season.
Best bet: Known as a solid Ryder Cup player, Howell was a quarterfinalist at this year's Accenture Match Play Championship; perhaps that format best suits his game.

	Ogilvie

The good news? Casual fans now know the difference between Ohio native Joe and Aussie Geoff Ogilvy. The bad news? That's because Geoff, the U.S. Open champ, has separated himself from his namesake by earning three titles in the past two seasons. Meanwhile, Joe Ogilvie's been a hard-luck loser with five top-three finishes since '04.
Best bet: A birdie-fest. The lower the number, the better Ogilvie fares, as evidenced by his final-round 62 that led to a third-place finish in Reno last week.

	Moore

If there's one thing we know about Moore, it's that he's a winner. As an amateur, he claimed the (take a deep breath) U.S. Amateur, U.S. PubLinks, NCAA Championship, Western Amateur and Sahalee Players Championship. The knack for earning trophies is an intangible skill and will no doubt translate to many PGA Tour wins over the years.
Best bet: Perhaps this week's Canadian Open, where he finished T-2 a year ago.

	O'Hern

This smooth-swinging lefty is known for having a brilliant short-game touch and a victory over Woods in the second round of last year's Accenture Match Play Championship. Then again, the 34-year-old has been bouncing around worldwide tours for quite some time now and still doesn't own a title on any major circuit (no, the Schweppes Coolum Classic, one of his four Aussie Tour wins, doesn't count).
Best bet: A short course that places a premium on solid ball striking and penalizes those who don't keep it in the short grass.

	Villegas

Villegas already leads the PGA Tour in magazine-covers-to-victories ratio, but Q rating has no effect on the money list. Fame has come at a fast, furious pace for the 24-year-old Colombian; he didn't even own Nationwide Tour status at the beginning of last season. Villegas has shown signs of wearing down. He earned three top 10s in his first nine starts this year, but hasn't gotten another one in his last 15.
Best bet: Wait till next year. Assuming Villegas gets a little R&R between tournaments and photo shoots in the offseason, he'll return with renewed vigor in 2007.

	Poulter

Forget the spiky hair and garish plaid pants, Poulter is more substance than style on the course. He earned six victories on the European Tour between 2000 and '04, but the Englishman is now focused on competing full-time in the U.S., which should equate to future success.
Best bet: Like fellow PGA Tour convert Trevor Immelman (who won this year's Western Open), Poulter tends to play his best golf against stronger fields.

	Quigley

Gritty. Gutty. Just call him a poor man's Chris DiMarco. Quigley does nothing all that well -- he's 89th in driving distance, 185th in driving accuracy and 118th in putting average -- yet is still enjoying the finest season of his 10 on tour, having eclipsed the $1 million mark for the first time, with seven top 10s in 26 starts.
Best bet: An event that features near-perfect conditions. A noted high-ball hitter, one wouldn't think Quigley could fare too well in heavy winds.

	Owen

Here's a man who really shouldn't be on this list. Not because he's not as talented as his non-winning peers, but Owen should have won the Bay Hill Invitational back in March. Instead, he 3-putted from 40 inches on the tournament's penultimate hole, eventually losing to Rod Pampling by 1 stroke.
Best bet: Somewhere in the Sunshine State. Owen earned four straight top-25 results in Florida earlier this year.

	Perez

He's been hindered by emotional on-course outbursts in the past and hampered by lingering injuries this season, but Perez has plenty of talent. When he's on his game -- as he was at last year's PGA Championship (T-6) and this year's Players Championship (T-3) -- he's very good. When he's off, the scores look pretty ugly.
Best bet: Perez is a West Coast guy and his greatest chance so far -- a 3-shot loss to Matt Gogel at the 2002 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am -- came on the West Coast swing.

	Frazar

A model of consistency, Frazar has finished between 48th and 96th on the money during every season since 1998, but currently finds himself just outside the top 100. In that time, he owns four runner-up results and 29 top 10s overall.
Best bet: Frazar's best opportunity will come in his home state of Texas; he's played well at Colonial, the Byron Nelson and the Texas Open.

	Chopra

A native of Sweden who was raised in India and lives in Orlando, Fla., Chopra has won everywhere from Malaysia to Arkansas, but is still seeking his first PGA Tour victory. With four top 10s this year, he's getting closer to that goal. One thing he's got going for him: He plays nearly every single week, having competed in 29 events so far in 2006.
Best bet: A late-season event. While many big-name players sit out during the stretch run, Chopra will be grinding out a victory.

	Gay

The PGA Tour's leading putter this season isn't named Tiger or Phil. Instead, it's this eight-year tour veteran, who owns a putting average of 1.713. Despite the influx of big bombers in the big leagues, we'll take a sharp short-game artist over a long-drive champ. So why does he hold only one top 10 in each of the last four seasons? Could have something to do with his third-round scoring average of 71.39, which is a stroke and a half higher than his usual Sunday score.
Best bet: Any event where the third round gets washed out and the field has to go 36 on Sunday.

	Jobe

Tell this guy he has the patience of Jobe, and it's unlikely he'll even crack a smile. Despite no wins in nine full seasons on tour, he is getting closer, as evidenced by two runner-up finishes (at the BellSouth Classic and International) last season. He's still playing solid golf at age 41, but that elusive title might have to come in the next few years, if he's ever to see it come to fruition.
Best bet: Some tournament that gets eclipsed by another event on the schedule. Even when Jobe finally receives headlines, something tells us he'll be overshadowed.

	Green

Fellow rookies Villegas and J.B. Holmes might get more attention, but no first-year player has been more consistent on a week-in, week-out basis than Green. He might be best known for chunking a chip in a playoff with Woods and Jose Maria Olazabal at Torrey Pines, but this 31-year-old Aussie owns six top-10 finishes and is knocking on the door to a berth in the season-ending Tour Championship.
Best bet: A shorter venue. He's played well at some relatively benign courses this year.

	Rose

The halfway co-leader at this past week's Deutsche Bank Championship, Rose finished the week 9 strokes behind Woods in a share of fourth place. It's got to be tough when you're still known more for making birdie on the final hole of the British Open as a 17-year-old than anything you've done as a professional. In just his third full season in the U.S., expect Rose to contend more as he becomes more accustomed to the venues.
Best bet: Someplace in the Northeast. For whatever reason, he's seen many of his top results in that part of the country.

	Jacobson

A flashy dresser with a funky swing, Fredrik Ulf Yngve Jacobson -- or Freddie Yock for short -- has been playing full-time on the PGA Tour since 2004, one season after earning a trio of victories on the European Tour. He already owns a pair of top-five results this season, so we know he has the stuff to contend.
Best bet: Plays his best golf on classic, old-style golf courses such as Doral and Westchester.

Don't see your favorite non-winner in the top 18? No worries. We couldn't help but name the next 18 guys without a victory as well: Briny Baird, Craig Barlow, Alex Cejka, Mathew Goggin, Mathias Gronberg, Charley Hoffman, Ryuji Imada, Richard S. Johnson, Skip Kendall, Stephen Leaney, Thomas Levet, Hunter Mahan, Bob May, Graeme McDowell, Tag Ridings, Omar Uresti, Nick Watney, Bubba Watson.

Jason Sobel is ESPN.com's golf editor. He can be reached at Jason.Sobel@espn3.com