Tiger Woods said his decision to not compete in The Players Championship was pretty simple
Tiger Woods had a simple reason for not playing a PGA Tour event on the Florida Swing.
His body wasn't ready for a 72-hole grind, even at The Players Championship, where the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass offers a fairly flat walk around the property.
Woods, a five-time Masters champion, said at a news conference on Tuesday at the Augusta National Golf Club that his plan to compete at least once a month leading up to the Masters -- which presumably would have brought The Players into the mix -- was derailed when his training sessions didn't yield the kind of results he needed to see.
"I wasn't ready to play," said Woods, who will play his 26th Masters this week. "My body wasn't ready ... my game wasn't ready. There are things that flared up in training ... other days not so much."
Woods will start his first round at 1:24 p.m. on Thursday, playing with Jason Day and Max Homa.
When did Tiger Woods last play on the PGA Tour?
Woods is playing for the first time since the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles in February. He shot 72 in the first round, then withdrew during the second because of a stomach virus.
Woods played in the 2023 Masters, made the cut at 3-over (he's never missed the cut at Augusta as a professional), but withdrew. He later went through ankle fusion surgery, another in a long list of medical procedures he's undergone that have included multiple back surgeries. He didn't play again until the off-season Hero World Challenge that he hosts in the Bahamas.
Woods' options in Florida were to enter the Cognizant Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, a short drive from his Jupiter home; the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, where he's won eight times; or The Players, the PGA Tour's marquee event where he's won twice.
Tiger Woods is no longer eligible for The Players
When Woods decided not to enter The Players, it exhausted his final chance to compete based on the five-year exemption he got by winning the 2019 Masters. For Woods to appear at the TPC Sawgrass again, he'd have to win on the PGA Tour in the next 11 months or get into the top 50 on the World Golf Ranking.
He's currently 959th.
Woods opted to save his body for the Masters, then hopefully the stretch of major championships over the rest of the spring and summer.
"Now we have majors every month through July," he said. "Once per month ... it will kick in."
Tiger Woods on his body: 'I hurt every day'
Woods was frank about his physical state.
"I hurt every day," he said.
But he said coming to Augusta National rejuvenates him.
"It's special coming down Magnolia Lane ... to put on a green jacket the rest of my life is amazing. I love it."
Woods also had a forecast for his week.
"If everything comes together I think I can get one more [title]," he said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Tiger Woods' decision not to compete in The Players: 'I wasn't ready'
