Getty Tiger Woods during the second round of the 2024 Genesis Invitational.
When the 2024 edition of The Players Championship begins on March 14 at famed TPC Sawgrass, Tiger Woods will not be among the 144 players vying for the $25 million purse.
The PGA Tour released the full field for its flagship event on March 8, and Woods’ name was noticeably absent, leading many to believe golf fans won’t see the 15-time major champion tee it up again until The Masters.
Ahead of his appearance in this past December’s Hero World Challenge, Tiger envisioned a scenario where he could play once a month.
As everyone expected, he made his 2024 season debut on February 15 at The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, a tourney he’s hosted for years to benefit his TGR Foundation. Unfortunately, due to illness, the 48-year-old was forced to withdraw after just 24 holes.
Given its high-profile nature, The Players Championship was expected to be Tiger’s final tuneup before the year’s first major. But given the upcoming PGA Tour schedule, it now seems Woods won’t tee it up again until Augusta.
Tiger Woods Likely Won’t Play Again Until The Masters
Tiger Woods is NOT in the field for THE PLAYERS next week.
Wow.
To be fair, Woods never said he would participate in The Players Championship. But, again, given that it’s the biggest event on the PGA Tour calendar and that he’d have ample time to recover before The Masters, it seemed like the logical choice.
However, it should also be noted that Tiger, a two-time Players winner, hasn’t appeared in the event since 2019.
Following The Players, the next stop on the PGA Tour schedule is the Valspar Championship (March 21-24) in Palm Harbor, Florida, a tourney Woods has played only once in his career, tying for second in 2018.
There are then a pair of stops in Texas — the Texas Children’s Houston Open (March 28-31) and the Valero Texas Open (April 4-7) — leading into The Masters, neither of which Woods is likely to play.
The Full 2024 Players Championship Field
Field for the 50th playing of THE PLAYERS Championship:
Despite the absence of Tiger Woods, the field at the 2024 edition of The Players Championship is stacked, a field led by world No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler and world No. 2 and 2019 champion Rory McIlroy.
Here’s a look at the full field at TPC Sawgrass broken down by how each player qualified for the event.
PGA Tour winner (past year)
Ludvig Åberg
Akshay Bhatia
Keegan Bradley
Sam Burns
Wyndham Clark
Corey Conners
Jason Day
Nick Dunlap
Austin Eckroat
Tony Finau
Matt Fitzpatrick
Rickie Fowler
Lucas Glover
Emiliano Grillo
Nick Hardy
Brian Harman
Lee Hodges
Viktor Hovland
Tom Kim
Chris Kirk
Jake Knapp
Luke List
Hideki Matsuyama
Rory McIlroy
Taylor Moore
Collin Morikawa
Grayson Murray
Vincent Norrman
Matthieu Pavon
Davis Riley
Scottie Scheffler
Sepp Straka
Nick Taylor
Sahith Theegala
Erik van Rooyen
Camilo Villegas
Matt Wallace
Winner of The Players Championship (five-year exemption)
Webb Simpson
Justin Thomas
Winner of U.S. Open (five-year exemption)
Gary Woodland
Winner of The Open (five-year exemption)
Shane Lowry
Francesco Molinari
FedExCup Champion (five-year exemption)
Patrick Cantlay
Winner of World Golf Championships event (three-year exemption)
Billy Horschel
Winner of Arnold Palmer Invitational (three-year exemption)
Kurt Kitayama
Top 70 on prior season’s FedExCup through Playoffs
Max Homa
Tommy Fleetwood
Russell Henley
Si Woo Kim
Xander Schauffele
Adam Schenk
Jordan Spieth
Sungjae Im
Justin Rose
Denny McCarthy
Seamus Power
Adam Hadwin
Byeong Hun An
Adam Svensson
Andrew Putnam
Eric Cole
J.T. Poston
Brendon Todd
Cam Davis
Cameron Young
Tom Hoge
Harris English
Patrick Rodgers
Mackenzie Hughes
Taylor Montgomery
Alex Smalley
Thomas Detry
Stephan Jaeger
Brandon Wu
Beau Hossler
Hayden Buckley
Sam Ryder
J.J. Spaun
Ben Griffin
Keith Mitchell
Samuel Stevens
Matt Kuchar
Mark Hubbard
Aaron Rai
Matthew NeSmith
Top 125 on prior season’s FedExCup points list through FedExCup Fall
Alex Noren
S.H. Kim
Justin Suh
Davis Thompson
K.H. Lee
Adam Scott
Joel Dahmen
Tyler Duncan
Michael Kim
Ben Taylor
Garrick Higgo
Robby Shelton
Taylor Pendrith
Callum Tarren
Dylan Wu
Harry Hall
Nate Lashley
Greyson Sigg
David Lipsky
Justin Lower
Carson Young
Tyson Alexander
Kevin Streelman
Chesson Hadley
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Zac Blair
Aaron Baddeley
Joseph Bramlett
Kevin Yu
Scott Stallings
Chez Reavie
Martin Laird
Ben Martin
Ryan Moore
Chad Ramey
Nico Echavarria
Peter Malnati
Matti Schmid
Andrew Novak
Doug Ghim
Troy Merritt
Carl Yuan
Major Medical Extension
Maverick McNealy
C.T. Pan
Top 50 Official World Golf Ranking
Min Woo Lee
Nicolai Højgaard
Will Zalatoris
Ryan Fox
Winner of Kaulig Companies Championship (prior year)
Steve Stricker
Leading points winner from Korn Ferry Tour (prior year)
Ben Kohles
Below top 10 in current year’s FedExCup Standings
Charley Hoffman
Sami Valimaki
Chan Kim
Ben Silverman
Ryo Hisatsune
Robert MacIntyre
David Skinns
Jimmy Stanger
Alexander Björk