Tiger Woods will not compete at the 2023 Players Championship with the Masters because of the possibility of appearing in the next tournament
Tiger Woods will not compete in the 2023 Tennis Championships after the 15-time major champion failed to commit to the field for next week’s event by Friday’s 5 p.m. ET deadline. Doing so meant participating in two events before the 86th match of the Masters. Technically, Woods could still do it, but it won’t be at TPC Sawgrass just weeks after qualifying earlier in the year at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.
Woods said after finishing T45 at the Riviera that he wanted to play something about five to seven times a year.
“As I told you last year, I’m not going to play more than the majors and maybe a few more,” Woods said. “So that’s it, that’s all my body allows me to do. My back is like that, all the surgeries I’ve had on my back, my legs are still the same, I can’t. That would be it. is my future.
“So my intention last year was to play in all four majors, I won three out of four majors. Hopefully this year I can win all four and maybe spread some more here. and stay there. But that’s for the rest of my career. I know it and I understand it. It’s just my reality.”
While other events might be part of that splash, Players are not. Woods is a two-time TPC Sawgrass champion, but he hasn’t made it to the event since 2019 and hasn’t made the top 10 since he won in 2013.
However, it would make sense to opt in to the Player field. This is the first Player Championship — the biggest event on the PGA Tour’s schedule as the Tour doesn’t host major championships — since the top players regrouped late last summer. to plan a fight against the Tour’s new rival, LIV Golf. Tiger and Rory McIlroy are the key leaders of that crew, and this week is sure to be part of a celebration of how well it went and an explanation of how things are still going. .
However, Tiger’s real mission from a tournament perspective is masters. The major is the only thing that can affect his legacy at this point. He knows he needs to get sharper and compete more often to even have a chance of winning another tournament, so physically it says he’s going to sit. out of this tournament.
Two games starting before April would be a great result for someone who had to withdraw from the Hero World Challenge in December because of plantar fasciitis and an even better one for Woods, who played against Augusta in his first game in 15 months after that car crash. broke his leg in February 2021.
Woods could still play the Valspar Championship or the Texas Open, but it’s likely his next game will be on Thursday of the 2023 Masters at Augusta National.
