Tiger Woods does not enter the field with 144 players for Players Championship, which starts next week on the Stadium track on TPC Sawgrass with 48 of the top 50 in the official world floor.
Until Friday night, Woods had to decide whether he would participate, but sent strong signals during an interview at Tuesday’s TGL event that he would be unlikely to come in. This is the last year of his automatic eligibility for the tournament, served with a victory at Masters 2019.
Twice defending champion Scottie Scheffler will try to be the first three times the winner of the players since Jack Nicklaus (1974, 1976, 1978) and the first player who won a PGA tour event three years in a row since Steve Stricker (John Deere Classic, 2009-11).
Woods quoted the latest death of his mother, Kultida, and his work on the PGA Tour Policy Board as limiting factors to his desire to work with his golf game.
“This is the third time I’ve been moving a club since my mom went, so I haven’t really entered it,” Woods told Sports Illustrated. “My heart is really not to practice right now. I’ve had so many other things to do with the tour and try to do other things.
“When I probably start to feel a little better and start getting into it, I start looking at the schedule.”
The latest official tournament forests played was a missed average at the 2024 Open Championship last July.
Woods, who continued to recover from a car accident in 2021, underwent a sixth back procedure in September, passed Hero World Challenge and then joined his son, Charlie, at the PNC championship in December.
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