Two-time Players Champion Tiger Woods has decided not to play at TPC Sawgrass next week.
The decision to do so comes as no real surprise, given his comments from last Tuesday night after his final TGL match of the season.
“Not really,” Woods said when asked if he had entertained the idea of making a start in Florida before The Masters in April.
“This is the third time I’ve touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven’t really gotten into it. 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.”
Woods’ mother Kultida passed on Feb. 4, one week after she watched her son participate in his second TGL match — the only match that Woods and his Jupiter Links team won during its inaugural season.
Woods has also participated in the PGA Tour’s ongoing negotiations with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), LIV Golf’s beneficiary. He has even met with President Donald Trump on two occasions to discuss this deal.
Two weeks after his mom’s death, on Feb. 18, Woods returned to competition, and talked about how challenging it was to play, knowing his mother watched him compete for the final time at the SoFi Center. He then decided to pass on the next week’s match.
“I had a hard time driving down here,” Woods said after his Feb. 18 defeat.
“I had a really hard time getting here and then reliving all the moments that we’ve had, my mom, how excited she was to have Charlie drive her here. So those are some great moments and great memories. It’s been a hard process.”
Woods will likely make his season debut at Augusta National, where he has won five Green Jackets.
The full field for the 2025 Players Championship, which features a $25 million purse, follows below. This year’s event features 48 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Only LIV Golf’s Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are the outliers of those 50 players.
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
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
