Tiger Woods won’t be playing in the Deutsche Bank tourney this weekend.

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

If there’s a pro golf tournament, and Tigers Woods isn’t it, does it really count?

If Tiger’s not there, does anyone really care?

To question one — who cares? Except, perhaps, philosophers.

As for question two, well, yeah, technically.

And, in regard to question three — we’ll find out this weekend at TPC Boston.

The answer will be provided, if not by sports writers, than certainly by golf fans.

This will be the sixth year of the Deutsche Bank Championship, the second as part of the Tour’s playoff system, and the first in which Woods has not played.

As the world’s unquestioned number-one golfer, Tiger has unquestionably been the main attraction at TPC Boston. Each and every year, he’s been the player who draws the biggest galleries, even when he’s not challenging for the lead.

There will be other players teeing it up this weekend who, like Tiger, are readily identifiable by their first name — Vijay and Phil, Sergio and Ernie. There will be winners of multiple majors, such as Lee Janzen, Retief Goosen, and Padraig Harrington, who won both the British Open and the PGA Championship this summer. This year’s Masters champion, Trevor Immelman, also is in what shapes up as an extremely strong field.

Yet one with one glaring weakness.

That is the absence of Tiger, the reigning U.S. Open champion and the defending FedEx Cup champion, who’s sidelined for the remainder of this year after reconstructive surgery on his left knee that clearly pained him throughout his thrilling playoff victory over a determined Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines.

No Tiger means that some of the excitement, some of the buzz, some of the glamour, some of the thrill, and — despite the presence of so many other good players — a goodly portion of the star power will be missing this weekend, as well.

The effect of Tiger’s absence was obvious in the TV ratings for the British Open, which plummeted from a year earlier, despite the surprising bid for the title by the charismatic Greg Norman.

Watching the Deutsche Bank without Tiger is like watching the Patriots play without Tom Brady. It’s having chocolate-chip cookies without the chips. It’s a day at the beach without sunshine.

Whether that’s the way it should be doesn’t matter. That’s the way it is. When it comes to the PGA Tour, Tiger is always the story, even when he’s not playing. Tour officials, and players, may wish things were different, but all they can do is go out and put on the best show they can, and try to show people that Tiger isn’t the whole show.

With Brett Quigley and Patrick Sheehan in the field, there should be lots of local interest this weekend. Both are battling to advance to the next round of the FedEx Cup.

Only the top 70 in the point standings will move on to St. Louis, which is particularly problematic for Quigley, who’s been sidelined the past two months with a stress fracture. He moved from 118 to 90 by finishing 38th at the Barclay’s last weekend, but in his five previous appearances in the Deutsche Bank, he’s never made the cut.

Brad Adamonis failed to make the cut last weekend, and so fell to No. 121 in the FedEx Cup standings, failing to qualify for the Deutsche Bank by just one spot.

As for Sheehan, he made a huge leap, from 120 to 85, by tying for 24th at Barclay’s. But he’s going to have to have another big tournament to keep playing.

With only the top 125 players on the Tour money list qualifying for full playing privileges next year, the Rhode Island contingent also has to be concerned about playing for next year, not just next weekend.

Quigley is at 109 going into this weekend, Adamonis is 110, and Sheehan is 113. Billy Andrade, who’s had a very disappointing year, is far back in the pack at 183 and, unless he plays phenomenally in the final events of the fall, following the FedEx Cup, could be facing a difficult career decision in 2009.

But none of that is the stuff to get your average golf fan’s heart pounding. Even for a die-hard, rooting for Quigley to make the cut isn’t the same as cheering for Tiger to win another tournament.

Woods played in only six tournaments this year and won four of them. He also was runner-up at the Masters.

He is the best golfer of his generation, and a convincing case can be made that he’s best ever.

And so the Deutsche Bank will just have to make the best of it this weekend, even though everybody knows going in that the tournament won’t be as good without Tiger.

jdonalds@projo.com