The week of the US Open might be a strange time to bring this up but golf in America has a serious problem when the third most famous golfer in the country is John Daly. He might be years removed from competitive relevance, months away from his last drunken tabloid headline, and only last week allowed back onto the PGA Tour but he is also the only player outside Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson with genuine box office name recognition. That may say more about the sports fans here than of all the other golfers. It may even be a perverse endorsement of his bad lifestyle choices. Still, it happens to be true.

The consistent magnificence of Woods this past 12 years has elevated golf in the public consciousness and amplified the prize money available. However, it has also created a situation where, in many ways, he's suffocated the life out of the very tour he bestrides. What does it tell us about the state of contemporary golf that beyond the two best players in the world the only pro most people here get excited about is a cartoon character? Daly's return from suspension at the St Jude Classic in Memphis 10 days ago got more media coverage than Brian Gay's victory in the event. Brian who?

Gay is a 37-year-old who has now won three tournaments in the last year and a half after more than a decade as a journeyman pro. A romantic tale of persistence and doggedness paying off. Yet most people trudging through the water at Bethpage this past few days couldn't pick Gay out of a line-up. That's no disrespect to him because the same lack of recognition applies to the vast majority of the field. The New York fans will be feted for creating a unique atmosphere this weekend but everybody will conveniently forget most of those standing in the muck couldn't tell Anthony Kim from Kim Cattrall.

In the troubled economic climate and a charged political environment where professional golf is regarded nefariously as the sporting wing of the beleaguered financial services industry, the lack of star wattage could yet lead to some serious problems. Even the players themselves realise it.

"We've all been sitting around in the locker room, wondering what the future of the PGA Tour is going to be and what it's going to look like in five years," said Kenny Perry, earlier this month. "It's tough out there, and it's up to us to help promote it. We need upper-echelon guys to really step up. I know that sounds a little unfair to Tiger [Woods] and Phil [Mickelson], but those guys are going to have to step in and help us out. Jack [Nicklaus] and Arnold [Palmer] carried the tour a long time. You'd hate to see their groundwork be pushed aside. Someone is going to have to step up and take their place."

Perry and his peers know well that they compete on a two-tiered tour. The tournaments graced by Mickelson and/or Woods are huge events. The ones they skip are the red-headed step children. Some of the players don't quibble because the absence of the best improves their chances of winning those weeks. Others though can see that increasingly cash-strapped sponsors are eventually going to tire of stumping up for a field bereft of the most marquee names. Tour commissioner Tim Finchem even sent a DVD to every member late last year urging them all to play more.

In his last full year on the US Tour, Woods teed off in 16 events. The season before, he managed just 15. Given that the British Open counts as one of those, this means nearly two-thirds of the American tournaments have no hope at all of attracting him. Mickelson, who obviously will be missing indefinitely because of his wife Amy's illness now, usually fares slightly better. He averages 21 or 22 appearances. As somebody who fancies himself as quite the polymath, Mickelson has even spent time trying to come up with a scheme to help the tour address the growing glamour deficit turning so many events into second-rate affairs.

"The tour should have 20 events where the top guys have to play," said Mickelson earlier this year. "Whatever number you want to use. Say, the top 125. As it is now, sponsors are upset because they don't know who will be in the field and therefore they don't know what they're buying. Same with television, where the ratings are flat or falling off. Fans would love it too, to have 20 events a year with the top guys mandated to play.

"Those 20 events would be the four majors, the Players Championship, the World Golf Championship events, and 12 others. Problem is, 200 players don't want that to happen. The top 100 don't want to be told where and when to play and the bottom 100 can't afford to lose the leverage for those remaining 20-plus or however many events."

In some ways, the tour is a victim of its own or Tiger's success. When he won his first Masters in 1997, his fellow pros were competing for a total purse that year of just under $71m. By 2007, the sum was just over $272m. A graphic illustration of his impact on the sport, it also caused an unlikely side-effect. The money began flowing through the game with such force that, much like in the Premier League, an entire generation of players came through who could get very rich without ever having to play very good. It's possible to become a multi-millionaire without ever becoming a great player.

Proving that the burgeoning prize money dulled competitive edges is an impossible task but there is no question the lack of star power in the game is down to potentially great American players failing to step up to fulfill their potential on a consistent basis. Long before he turned into a country and western song with what many believe will be an inevitably sad ending, Daly did win majors. In some style too.

But where is the Pádraig Harrington from Texas or the Angel Cabrera from Illinois, a genuine major contender with the toughness and the talent to start every big one with a serious shot at winning? The likes of Anthony Kim, Hunter Mahan and JB Holmes are held up as up-and-comers but doing it at the Ryder Cup is a lot different than winning at Augusta or Bethpage. Principally because their fellow countrymen watch majors and care about them. They do not watch Europe v USA.

Maybe this is the afternoon when an American emerges from the pack and, given that this event takes place in the backyard of the media capital, etches his name into the national consciousness. In the meantime, the golf authorities wrap Woods around themselves like a comfort blanket.

"He's our own TARP [the term used for the government bail-out of stricken industries] money," said Pete Bevacqua, the US Golf Association's chief business officer earlier this week. "You can't even measure how important he is to the game. He's a Michael Jordan, Tom Brady [New England Patriots' iconic quarterback] and Sidney Crosby [boy wonder of the NHL] all rolled into one."

Don't they just know it.

dhannigan@tribune.ie