Tiger Woods’ 2025 debut won’t be at next week’s Players Championship.
The field for what’s widely considered golf’s “fifth major” was released late Friday afternoon, and Woods wasn’t among the players listed.
THE PLAYERS Championship is the first of five events this season offering 750 FedExCup points to the winner.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler seeks to join Jack Nicklaus (1974, 1976, 1978) as the only three-time winners of THE PLAYERS Championship and become the first to win the… pic.twitter.com/fUyWFebpvo
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) March 7, 2025
There was some thought that Woods could return at TPC Sawgrass. He said earlier this year that he was hoping to play more this season, and he has taken part in TGL matches in recent weeks, as well as the competitive Seminole Pro-Member tournament Monday in Florida with a host of other PGA Tour players.
But Woods’ mother, Kultida, died at the age of 80 on Feb. 4, and he said after his TGL match Tuesday that he really hasn’t played much since.
“I haven’t really gotten into it,” Woods told reporters in South Florida. “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.
“Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I’ll start looking at the schedule.”
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Woods was scheduled to play in last month’s Genesis Invitational, which he hosts, but withdrew after his mother’s death. He has been active away from the course, meeting with President Donald Trump to try to speed up the PGA Tour’s proposed deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf.
Woods, 49, hasn’t played an official PGA Tour event since he missed the cut at The Open at Royal Troon Golf Course in Scotland in July. He had microdecompression surgery on the lumbar spine to relieve pain in his lower back in mid-September, which is believed to be his sixth back procedure in the past 10 years.
Although Woods likely will play in the Masters beginning April 10, it’s unclear what, if any, events he’ll enter ahead of the year’s first official major championship.
