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Players Championship field: No Tiger Woods, but Scottie Scheffler will lead rest of Tour stars
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- Players Championship field: No Tiger Woods, but Scottie Scheffler will lead rest of Tour stars
Tiger Woods has passed on his final chance to play in The Players Championship .
Woods' name was absent when the Players field was released shortly after 5 p.m. Friday by the PGA Tour. It's his final year of eligibility off his victory in The Masters in 2019.
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Woods, an 82-time PGA Tour winner, 15-time major champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, won't be eligible in 2026 unless he wins a PGA Tour event over the next 12 months, gets into the top 50 in the World Golf Rankings by the end of next year's Cognizant Classic or finishes among the top-70 on the 2025 FedEx Cup points list.
Given his lack of starts — Woods still hasn't played this season — those goals seem hard to reach even for him.
Woods is 1,129 on this week's World Golf Rankings.
Scottie Scheffler leads stout field
However, every other big PGA Tour star will be at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass when the Tour's flagship event begins on March 13.
Scottie Scheffler, center, poses for photo with family, right is wife Meredith Scudder, after the fourth and final round of The Players Championship PGA golf tournament Sunday, March 17, 2024 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Scottie Scheffler won at 20 under par and is the first defending champion in the 50 year history of the event. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Led by two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler , 2019 Players champion Rory McIlroy , two-time 2024 major champion Xander Schauffele and current FedEx Cup points leader Ludvig Aberg , the Players field includes 48 of the top-50 players on the world rankings and 86 of the top 100.
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Also in the field will be past Players champions Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Si Woo Kim and Matt Kuchar, and 97 of the top 100 players on the FedEx Cup points list through the Cognizant Classic.
There also will be a pair of twins for the first time in The Players: Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard of Denmark, who are veterans of the DP World Tour, are eligible.
When did Tiger Woods last play at TPC Sawgrass?
Wood has made 18 starts in The Players and has never missed a cut. He won in 2001 and 2013 and has five top-10 finishes.
He last played in 2019, tying for 30th.
Woods offered a club after his TGL match earlier in the week, saying the combination of his mother's death on Feb. 4 and his efforts as a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board to bring the Tour and LIV Golf together, have taken a toll on his ability to practice and get ready for an event such as The Players.
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"This is the third time I've touched a club since my mom passed, so I haven't really gotten into it," Woods said . "My heart is not into practicing right now. I have so many other things to do with the Tour. Once I start probably feeling a little bit better and start getting into it, I'll start looking at the schedule."
Woods is expected to play at the Masters April 10-13 at Augusta National, where he is a five-time champion.
Can anyone else get into The Players?
The winner of the Puerto Rico Championship, if not otherwise eligible, can get into The Players Championship.
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The entire field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, a PGA Tour Signature Event at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, is already eligible for The Players, except amateur Jackson Koivun.
Players Championship field
Ludvig Åberg, Byeong Hun An, Daniel Berger, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Akshay Bhatia, Keegan Bradley, Jacob Bridgeman, Sam Burns, Brian Campbell, Rafael Campos, Laurie Canter, Patrick Cantlay, Frankie Capan III, Bud Cauley, Will Chandler, Wyndham Clark, Eric Cole, Corey Conners, Joel Dahmen, Cam Davis, Jason Day, Thomas Detry, Nick Dunlap, Nico Echavarria, Austin Eckroat, Harris English, Tony Finau, Patrick Fishburn, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Rickie Fowler, Ryan Fox, Brice Garnett, Ryan Gerard, Doug Ghim, Lucas Glover, Will Gordon, Chris Gotterup, Max Greyserman, Ben Griffin, Lanto Griffin, Emiliano Grillo, Adam Hadwin, Harry Hall, Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Joe Highsmith, Ryo Hisatsune, Lee Hodges, Rico Hoey, Charley Hoffman, Tom Hoge, Nicolai Højgaard Rasmus Højgaard, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Beau Hossler, Viktor Hovland, Mark Hubbard, Mackenzie Hughes, Sungjae Im, Stephan Jaeger, Chan Kim, Michael Kim, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, Chris Kirk, Kurt Kitayama, Patton Kizzire, Jake Knapp, Ben Kohles, Matt Kuchar, Nate Lashley, K.H. Lee, Min Woo Lee, David Lipsky, Luke List, Justin Lower, Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre, Peter Malnati, Hideki Matsuyama, Denny McCarthy, Matt McCarty, Max McGreevy, Rory McIlroy, Maverick McNealy, Mac Meissner, Keith Mitchell, Taylor Moore, Collin Morikawa, Trey Mullinax, Henrik Norlander, Andrew Novak, C.T. Pan, Matthieu Pavon, Taylor Pendrith, Victor Perez, Chandler Phillips, J.T. Poston, Aldrich Potgieter, Seamus Power, Andrew Putnam, Aaron Rai, Chad Ramey, Davis Riley, Patrick Rodgers, Justin Rose, Kevin Roy, Sam Ryder, Isaiah Salinda, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Adam Schenk, Matti Schmid, Adam Scott, Greyson Sigg, Ben Silverman, David Skinns, Alex Smalley, J.J. Spaun, Jordan Spieth, Hayden Springer, Sam Stevens, Sepp Straka, Jackson Suber, Adam Svensson, Jesper Svensson, Nick Taylor, Sahith Theegala, Justin Thomas, Davis Thompson, Alejandro Tosti, Sami Valimaki, Erik van Rooyen, Jhonattan Vegas, Kris Ventura, Camilo Villegas, Vince Whaley, Gary Woodland, Cameron Young, Carson Young, Kevin Yu, Will Zalatoris.
Alternates (in order of FedEx Cup rank):Danny Walker, Danny Willett, Ricky Castillo, Paul Peterson, Quade Cummins, Vincent Norrman, Zach Johnson, Taylor Montgomery, John Pak, Webb Simpson, Steven Fisk, Niklas Norgaard, Matteo Manassero, Jeremy Paul, Aaron Baddeley.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Tiger Woods opts out of entering The Players in final year of eligibility
