Tiger Woods will not play the 2023 Players Championship after the 15-time primary winner did not decide to the sector for next week’s tournament via the 5 p.m. ET time limit on Friday. Doing so would have intended collaborating in two occasions earlier than the 86th taking part in of the Masters. Technically, Woods may just nonetheless do this, but it surely would possibly not be at TPC Sawgrass only some weeks after making the lower at his first get started of the yr at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
Woods mentioned after completing T45 at Riviera that he desires to play one thing round 5 to seven occasions a yr.
“Like I told you guys last year, I’m not going to play any more than probably the majors and maybe a couple more,” mentioned Woods. “That’s it, that’s all my body will allow me to do. My back the way it is, all the surgeries I had on my back, my leg the way it is, I just can’t. That’s just going to be my future.
“So my intent closing yr used to be to play in all 4 majors, I were given 3 of the 4. Hopefully this yr I will get all 4 and possibly sprinkle in a couple of right here and there. But that is it for the remaining of my profession. I do know that and I remember the fact that. That’s simply my truth.”
Though different occasions may well be a part of that sprinkle, the Players will not. Woods is a two-time winner at TPC Sawgrass, however he hasn’t performed the tournament since 2019 and hasn’t completed in the highest 10 since he gained in 2013.
Still, opting into the Players box would have made sense. This is the primary Players Championship — the most important tournament at the PGA Tour’s time table as the Tour does not run the key championships — for the reason that most sensible avid gamers got here in combination on the finish of closing summer time to formulate a plan to combat the Tour’s new rival, LIV Golf. Tiger and Rory McIlroy had been the principle leaders of that team, and this week will indubitably be section birthday celebration of ways neatly it has long past and section clarification of the entirety that is nonetheless to spread.
Tiger’s actual quest from a tournament viewpoint, then again, is the Masters. The majors are the one factor that may impact his legacy at this level. He is aware of that he must be sharp and play extra continuously to have even a sliver of an opportunity to win some other one, so it is telling in phrases of his frame that he is sitting this tournament out.
Two begins earlier than April would were a super end result for any person who needed to pull out of the Hero World Challenge in December with plantar fasciitis and a fair higher one for Woods, who performed Augusta as his first get started in 15 months following the automobile coincidence that wrecked his leg in February 2021.
Woods may just nonetheless play the Valspar Championship or Texas Open, however it’s likely that his next get started will be at the Thursday of the 2023 Masters at Augusta National.