by David Berlin, Special to FOXSports.com

2008 PGA Championship

• Golfweek: Harrington rebounds for win
• Golfweek: 'Monster' story of the PGA
• Photos: Sunday's best shots
• Final leaderboard

So who will it be? Who's going to take advantage of the Tiger-less PGA at Oakland Hills and claim the Wanamaker Trophy?

Here are my favorites:

Jim Furyk: The guy just plays well in the majors. He's typically in the hunt, and I expect him to contend at Oakland Hills. He also played on that 2004 Ryder Team that lost at Oakland Hills.

Sergio Garcia: Coming off a disappointing British Open where he was the favorite, he is being picked again by many experts and he hopes to lose the title of the "Best Player without a Major." Plus, he did play in the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills where he went 4-0-1.

Retief Goosen: His game is starting to come around, and he's playing the best golf he has played in over a year. He had a solid British Open and finished strong last week at Firestone. The two-time U.S. Open champion knows how to win a major, and his game translates well to Oakland Hills.

Padraig Harrington: The Irishman is certainly coming in confident after winning his second consecutive British Open. He also finished strong over the weekend at Firestone and should be ready to compete. He played for the winning European squad at Oakland Hills during the '04 Ryder Cup, and hopefully he will have better success in the Detroit area than his cousin, Joey Harrington, did during his tenure with the Lions.

Anthony Kim: He should have gained valuable experience by being in the hunt on the final day at the British Open. However, he did falter on the back nine at Royal Birkdale and then experienced another final round collapse at the Canadian Open the following week. I'm not sure if he will learn from those failures or if these meltdowns are now a trend.

Phil Mickelson: Lefty was in position to win last week before imploding down the stretch, bogeying three of the last four holes. He did not play well at the Ryder Cup in 2004 when he was paired with Tiger in team competition. He does come in as one of the favorites, so he cannot be discounted. But he must avoid the one-hole meltdowns like he had at the U.S. Open and British Open, which really knocked him from contention.

Kenny Perry: So he couldn't find an excuse to skip this major. The hottest player of the summer finally puts his game up against the world's best players, or shall we say the world's second-best players with Tiger out of the picture and a major on the line. To be fair to Perry, he did play last week at the WGC but finished near the bottom of the field. With his Ryder Cup spot secure, I'm not sure how motivated he will be to win.

Adam Scott: Many predicted that Adam Scott would take advantage of Tiger's absence. He did have a good start at Royal Birkdale but faded over the weekend to fall out of the top 15. His best finish at a major was at the 2006 PGA, where he tied for third. It's also been awhile since he's been a factor on Sunday at a big tournament.

Vijay Singh: Hot off his win at the WGC, the two-time PGA Champion is certainly capable of winning a third. If he can hit the fairways and greens as he did at Firestone, he will be in contention. But he will have to putt better this week at Oakland Hills if he wants to take home another Wanamaker Trophy.

Lee Westwood: He played solid last week at Firestone and the U.S. Open back in June. He also has a lot of similarities with Garcia in that he has played well in past majors but has yet to break through. In particular, he played well at Oakland Hills in the 2004 Ryder Cup, equaling Garcia's record of 4-0-1.

As with almost all majors, we will likely have some relative unknown in contention on Sunday. Sean O'Hair certainly isn't a household name and hasn't broken the top 10 in his first 11 majors played, but he has played well the last couple of weeks. He may be another Shaun Micheel, who came out of obscurity to win the PGA in 2003.

Then there's the "old guy" who out of nowhere gets in contention. It was Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines and then Greg Norman at Royal Birkdale. I'm looking for Fred Couples to have a strong showing. Since missing his first-ever cut at the Masters, he's actually played fairly well, although on a limited schedule with three top-20 finishes. If his back holds up, he could make some noise come Sunday.

The winner, however, will still come from one of the 10 mentioned above, and I'm going with Furyk. While his swing is a little unorthodox, his game is rock solid and unlike many of the others on this list, he will not self destruct when the pressure is on.