It's official: Tiger Woods not entered in Players Championship; is next start Masters?

As he indicated earlier this week, Tiger Woods will once again skip competing in next week’s Players Championship, the field for which was released on Friday.

This will be the sixth straight year that Woods has not started in the PGA Tour's flagship event at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. He last played in 2019 and achieved the last of his two Players victories in 2013. Over his last 14 starts on the Stadium Course, the single victory is his only top-10 finish. This year also is Woods' final to be eligible based on his 2019 Masters win.

Asked at the TGL event on Tuesday if he was “gearing up” for a start on the Florida Swing, Woods responded, “Not really. This is the third time I've touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven't really gotten into it," said Woods, whose mom, Tida, died last month. "My heart is not really into practicing right now. I've had so many other things to do with the tour and trying to do other things."

With the chances seeming unlikely that Woods would play in the one remaining Florida event and two Texas tournaments after the Players, it figures that his next potential start is the Masters, where Woods made the cut last year but finished with the highest 72-hole score of his entire career—16-over 304.

There are three other eligible players who did not commit to the Players: Ernie Els, Alex Noren and Brendon Todd.

On the heels of this week’s $20 million signature Arnold Palmer Invitational, the deepest field in quality for the early season will be on hand at Sawgrass, with 144 golfers competing for a total purse of $25 million and first prize of $4.5 million. It’s the most lucrative payout for a non-major tour event other than the Tour Championship.

Forty-eight of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are set to play, led by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. A year ago, Scheffler won his second straight Players title, and if the Texan won for a third time, he’d be the first since Jack Nicklaus (1974, ’76, ’78). Steve Stricker is the last player on tour win an event three straight years at the John Deere (2009-11).