Woods not part of field for the Players Championship
6 tied for the lead at Palmer Invite
ORLANDO, Fla. — Tiger Woods is not in the field for The Players Championship next week, opening questions about whether or where the five-time Masters champion will play before Augusta National.
The Players already is missing a bevy of big names from those who joined LIV Golf. Now it’s missing the biggest draw in golf.
There was not an immediate reason why Woods chose not to play at the TPC Sawgrass, where he has won twice. He was not listed in the field that the PGA Tour released Friday. Even though injuries have severely limited his schedule, he would be eligible from his five-year exemption from winning the 2019 Masters.
For Woods, his road to the Masters could be the Seminole Pro-Member last week in Florida. He played 18 holes with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh. Otherwise, his only competition this year was 24 holes at the Genesis Invitational, where Woods withdrew after six holes in the second round at Riviera with the flu.
Woods had surgery to fuse his right ankle after the Masters last year and didn’t return until the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in December. He has said walking was no longer as big an issue, though he still got sore from other parts of his body. He has had five surgeries on his back.
Even so, he was optimistic he could play once a month through the majors in 2024. He never committed to The Players, though it made sense for a once-a-month schedule as the tour’s premier championship on a course he has won twice.
The Valspar Championship is after The Players. Woods played there in 2018 and was runner-up, but he has never returned. The only other two tournaments remaining are the Houston Open, which he has never played, and the Texas Open, which he last played on a sponsor exemption when he was 20 and just out of college in 1996.
PGA: In Orlando, Fla., Shane Lowry set the target Friday at Bay Hill, and as tough as the course plays, he would not have imagined how much company he would have at the top in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Scottie Scheffler chipped in for eagle and holed a 45-foot birdie putt on his way to a 5-under 67. U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark birdied five of his last six holes — he had nine birdies for the round — and shot 66. Hideki Matsuyama, coming off a win at Riviera, had a 70 to put himself in the mix for another $4 million payoff.
All that movement late on a warm day in central Florida led to a six-way share of the lead that includes British Open champion Brian Harman (68) and Russell Henley (69).
They were at 7-under 137. It was the largest logjam through 36 holes on the PGA Tour since seven were tied for the lead at the Texas Open in 2011.
LPGA: In Sanya, China, Narin An shot a 7-under 65 on Friday to join Sarah Schmeizel in the lead after the second round of the Blue Bay LPGA on China’s southern island of Hainan.
Both golfers had a 9-under total of 135 to sit one shot clear of Hye-Jin Choi as they each look for a first victory on the LPGA Tour.
LIV: In Hong Kong, Abraham Ancer and Dean Burmester shot 7-under 63s Friday to share the first-round lead at the inaugural LIV Golf tournament in Hong Kong.
Both players had strings of five consecutive birdies on the relatively short 6,710-yard Hong Kong Golf Club course. They led by one stroke over a group that included Martin Kaymer and Louis Oosthuizen.